Underground's Champion
by Quatermass
Summary: (Female Chara!) Years ago, the Dursleys hurled Harry Potter into a river that led underneath Mount Ebott. Now, the Goblet of Fire brings Harry and his new family into Hogwarts, shattering the Barrier around Mount Ebott in the process. How will Magical Britain react to the Monsters, and to a saviour raised by them? And what dark secret does Chara, Harry's girlfriend, hide?
1. Foreword

**FOREWORD**

I really have to stop these plot bunnies from copulating. This is getting ridiculous. And yet, it happens. I blame my newfound obsession with _Undertale_. I've done three crossovers beforehand: a one-shot with _FEAR_ called _Dum Spiro Spero_ , another oneshot with _Death Note_ called _Queen of Spiders and Greatest Detective_ , and a lengthier one with _Final Fantasy X_ called _What Lies Beneath_. I might as well jump on the Harry Potter/ _Undertale_ crossover bandwagon as well.

A lot of the Harry Potter crossovers with _Undertale_ , rather understandably, have Harry falling into the Underground. While it was somewhat appealing to me to have Toriel adopt Harry, the truth was, it didn't seem like much of a story in the end, and to follow the same route as so many others was doing didn't appeal to me. I then had the oddest bit of inspiration, where I had this notion of Undyne being related to Lily Potter. That became the original version of _Underground's Champion_ , but I realised that the worldbuilding was awkward, and so too was the bashing. And I try only to bash when it suits the plot of a story.

One possible idea I had was Harry, instead of falling into the Ruins area and being adopted by Toriel, was of him falling into the Garbage Dump, and getting adopted by Alphys. I had considered doing it as part of the game's story, but then, another idea occurred to me, and I decided to use the basic plot of Underground's Champion (Harry getting dragged from the Underground into the Tri-Wizard Tournament), and so I set it before the beginning of the game, with Asriel and Chara still alive and well. And for the _Undertale_ purists, yes, I have made Alphys the Royal Scientist and Undyne the Captain of the Royal Guard long before they would have done so in the game's timeline. It's an AU.

Anyway, time for the usual disclaimers. Firstly, there will be spoilers for both _Undertale_ and Harry Potter. If you want to avoid spoilers for the former especially, don't read. This is also something of an AU for both. And Chara will be a girl in this.

Secondly, there will be heavy annotations, as is usual for my works. You have been warned.

Thirdly, this is an M-Rated work. There will be coarse language, violence, and dark themes. Again, you have been warned.

Finally, the following is a fan-written work. _Undertale_ and Harry Potter are the properties of their respective owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, Chara will take your soul…


	2. Chapter 1: Taken

**CHAPTER 1:**

 **TAKEN**

 _Alphys was far from ready. The newly-appointed Royal Scientist of the Underground was chewing her lip in nervousness. It was one of the reasons why she had come to the Dump in Waterfall. It was quiet here, not many people came this way except to scavenge anything that had fallen from the Surface (which was how she had obtained a good chunk of her video collection), and she needed to think._

 _The enormity of her position was crushing down on her. She was expected to find a way to breach the Barrier and make it to the Surface, preferably in a way that didn't involve taking human souls. Indeed, the King and Queen had made that clear, especially as they had recently adopted a human who had fallen into Home, about a month ago. Asriel had a sister now, Chara. While more than a few Monsters were wary of her, Alphys included (partly because, well, humans were responsible for the Monsters being down here, partly because of the creepy deportment of Chara, and partly because of her unnatural red eyes), if she was under Asgore's protection, that was the end of the matter. Asgore may have been a big goofball and a softy, people didn't forget that he was also the strongest Monster in the Underground, that he was King for a reason._

 _As she waddled amongst the piles of garbage, she thought she heard a groan of pain. She blinked, before she turned her saurian head to where she heard it. It seemed to be coming from a pile of mattresses. These didn't come from the Surface…well, at least immediately before the Dump. No, some thrill-seeking idiots piled them up and were jumping off a nearby cliff to land on them, with the mattresses magically-enchanted to prevent injury. In theory, Alphys knew that someone could fall all the way from the Surface, and end up with bruises at best unless they landed badly._

 _As it happened, it seemed that someone had. Fallen from the Surface, anyway. Landing badly didn't seem likely, as the limbs weren't at grotesque angles._

 _And it was a human to boot._

 _Alphys waded through the ankle-deep water, making her way over to the human lying there, groaning in pain. It was a boy, maybe younger than Chara (who was eight), with a messy mop of black hair on his head. He seemed rather thin and scrawny for his age, and Alphys was horrified when she realised she could see bruises all over his body, some of them old. His ratty clothes were soaked, a pair of broken glasses was askew on his face. His eyes fluttered open, revealing emerald green irises, and when he seemed to see her, his eyes widened in panic. "No, stay away!" he shrieked._

 _"C-C-Calm down!" Alphys protested as the boy tried to scramble away, only to fall into the water. Alphys hurriedly helped him to his feet. "It's okay. I won't hurt you. I won't hurt you."_

 _He didn't run, but his eyes were wary. And weary. He blinked as he seemed to take in her appearance. She guessed that, to a human, she would look pretty odd, like a human-sized dinosaur wearing a labcoat, glasses, and with a prominent overbite. But not threatening, she would think. Chara had recently dismissed Alphys as a 'dorkosaurus'._

 _After a moment, the boy looked around, and said, "Who are you? Where am I?" He sounded slightly more calm than he was seconds before, but there was also a tone of resignation that shouldn't be in the voice of a boy that age._

 _"You're in the Underground, beneath…Mount Ebott, I think you humans called it."_

 _"Mount Ebott? That's where they took me for camping, but Dudley, he…he pushed me into the river, saying anything that went into the river disappeared forever. It went into a cave, Dudley and Uncle Vernon were laughing, and…" The boy began to sob, and he allowed Alphys to give him a hug. The scientist was sorry for the child, but she was also angry. She never thought she could be this angry before, and yet, if what this child had said was correct, his relatives had just tried to murder him._

 _After the boy's sobs died down, Alphys then said, "Well, you asked who I was. My name is Doctor Alphys. What's your name?"_

 _Tentatively, the boy said, "Harry. Harry Potter…"_

* * *

Harry Potter smiled to himself as he walked through Waterfall, back to his home. Well, the home of one of his mothers, anyway. They were going to have a nice dinner tonight, with his mothers, and the Dreemurrs, minus Asgore, who was busy with affairs of state (namely the paperwork he had neglected while watering his flowers). He had just been visiting Sans and Papyrus in Snowdin. He knew Undyne got annoyed by Papyrus' overwhelming and loud enthusiasm, as well as Sans' bad puns, but the two skeletons were good guys. Undyne knew that, she just had a bit of a clash of personality with them.

Also, thanks to a few factors, he was something of a minor celebrity in the Underground. He was, after all, one of only two humans who lived in the Underground. And one of his mothers was the Royal Scientist, while the other was the Head of the Royal Guard, and at a young age to boot. And, unfortunately, being the boyfriend of the only other human in the Underground didn't help matters. Harry was uncomfortable with celebrity, especially as he knew now something of his reputation on the Surface (amongst the wizards and witches, anyway), but he was living with it.

As he made his way, he spotted the Dreemurrs just ahead of him. Toriel Dreemurr, her biological son Asriel, and her adopted daughter Chara. A bit of a motley crew, to say the least. Toriel and Asriel looked, for all the world, like humanoid goats. White fur covered the exposed parts of their bodies, they had long floppy ears and long snouts. Both had a pair of fangs poking out of their mouths, in a manner that managed to look endearing rather than sinister. Both had horns, though both pairs were rather short. Toriel was dressed in a tabard embroidered with the Delta Rune, the sign of the Underground, and a depiction of a prophecy. Asriel was dressed rather more casually, in a green and yellow striped shirt and black trousers, as was Chara.

In terms of appearance, Chara was very different, though that was probably because she was human. There was something vaguely and hauntingly unearthly about her beauty, though, especially now that she, and Harry, were fourteen. Short brown hair framed a beautiful face that seemed to have a perpetual blush, even if only faintly at times. Her most notable features, however, were her blood red eyes. An unwanted gift from her biological father, he knew.

As usual, it was Asriel who noticed him first, and greeted him. "Howdy, Harry! We were just coming over."

"You're a bit early," Harry remarked. "Not that I'm complaining, mind."

Chara looked at Harry, and winked. "I'm sure you aren't."

Harry blushed a little. He remembered how embarrassed he was when he and Chara got caught making out by the rest of the Dreemurrs, on their birthday. They didn't have the exact same date, true, but close enough that their parties usually were combined. What compounded the embarrassment was that the Dreemurrs encouraged their affection. Oh, not so far as to encourage actual intimacy, but kissing was fine in their book. Asriel did play a bit of the protective brother card, but in truth, he still didn't mind them being together.

Then again, it was only thanks to Harry that Chara and Asriel were alive today. It was Harry, after all, who stopped them from going through with that insane plan, one that would have seen Chara dead, and possibly Asriel too.

"Now, let's be on our best behaviour," Toriel said.

"Or what, are you going to use those bad puns you've practised with Sans on me?" Chara asked with a roll of her eyes. "They may cause an allergic reaction in some people, but not me. Harry, would you be a gentleman and hold my hand while you escort me to your home?"

Harry smiled, and did so. Her skin was cool to the touch, but not in a creepy way, rather, more of a soothing way. As they continued, Harry remarked, "It'd be Halloween on the surface tonight."

Chara scoffed. "Probably one of the few times that nobody would look askance at the Monsters. They'd probably think they were good costumes or something."

"It's practically a national holiday with the wizards and witches, all because Voldemort was vanquished," Harry said. He scowled at the thought. It was only thanks to Chara that he knew anything about his heritage. He wasn't a fool: he knew that there were good humans, despite what Chara thought. But the thought of being kept ignorant of what he was…

Chara shrugged. "Well, I would celebrate, but for a subtly different reason."

They had come to the house where Harry and his mothers lived, which vaguely looked like a scowling fish's head. As was her wont to do, even on a day off, his aunt was doing training exercises. "NGAAAAH!" she screamed as she sent a blizzard of magic spears at a training dummy, turning it into scattered rags and stuffing.

"Enthusiastic as always, Undyne?" Toriel asked.

Undyne turned to look at Toriel, and then grinned. "You know it, Toriel." It took her a while to stop calling Toriel Queen. "Alphy's putting the finishing touches on the meal. I'm still surprised at how good a cook she is. She usually eats junk at her lab. I'm a little jealous, really."

"I brought along my butterscotch cinnamon pie, and some of Alphys' favourite snacks," Toriel said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Undyne cheered, before they entered the house, to find Alphys serving out a meal.

"Good evening, Toriel, Asriel, Chara," Alphys said, smiling nervously. "It's nice to have you here."

"It's good to be here, Alphys," Toriel said with a smile.

* * *

The meal was occasionally punctuated by small talk, mostly started by Toriel, Asriel, or Harry. Chara was unsociable at the best of times, unless her family or Harry was involved. Alphys was rather timid about social situations, and Undyne…well, she was loud and boisterous, and tended to derail conversations rather than start them.

After a period, Toriel turned to Harry and Alphys. "How is the research into the Barrier coming along?"

"Slowly, but we are making better progress using human magic rather than that of Monsters," Harry said. "As it was human mages who set up the Barrier in the first place, human magic would have better luck in removing it, though they seemed to set up failsafes against it being removed from inside the Barrier, save for the seven human souls. The soul fragment that was in my scar seems to count as one soul, luckily."

"About time he was good for something," Chara snorted.

"Hey, Voldemort was good for two things at least," Harry said, looking at Chara meaningfully. "Given what he did to my parents, and to your mother…"

"Yes, I know," Chara said. "I just don't like sitting around, knowing that he's out there. He shouldn't be our problem, but…"

Toriel nodded. "He's been defeated by Harry once, Chara. Someone like Voldemort cannot countenance such a thing. His ego won't allow it. If he ever finds out that Harry is in the Underground…and that's without going into the innocent lives he will destroy."

"Innocent," Chara scoffed quietly. She didn't say anything further, though she got up from the table. Asriel went with her.

However, shortly thereafter, Harry convulsed. He was sitting with Alphys and Undyne next to him, and as Chara passed, blue fire flared around the four of them. Suddenly, in a flare of azure light, they vanished, leaving Toriel to gape.

Shortly after that, Toriel's phone rang. She frowned when she saw the phone number, that of Asgore, and answered it. In a distant voice, she said, "Gorey…I'll need to call you back. Something bad has just happened." She frowned when she heard her husband telling her something impossible, before her eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean, the Barrier just shattered?!"

* * *

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, something big was happening. Not just the drawing of the three Champions from the schools of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. No, this was about to overshadow that. They knew this when the Goblet of Fire spat out a fourth name, a name only two people in that hall had been expecting, even if they didn't show it. They showed shock and surprise, especially when the name on that slip of paper was read out by Professor Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter?"

The silence that followed was so thick, it could be cut with a knife. It was the calm before the storm. Harry Potter? The Boy Who Lived? The Boy Who Disappeared?

Suddenly, there was a flare of blue flame near the Goblet of Fire. For a time, the azure flames flicked in a massive patch of fire on the stone floor, before finally, with a loud crack of noise like thunder, it dissipated, revealing a quintet of…people?

One of them appeared to be a short, yellow lizard in a dress, glasses askew and with a prominent overbite. Another was a woman who appeared to be part-fish, with blue scaly skin, red hair, an athletic figure, and one baleful golden eye with a slitted pupil, the other eye covered by an eyepatch. A third seemed to be a teenager, but with goat-like features, white-furred and with short horns.

The other two seemed human enough, though the red eyes of one of them that peered out in anger from underneath a fringe of brown hair suggested otherwise. The other, however, was a major surprise, with messy black hair framing handsome features, green eyes peering out from behind glasses, and a scar zig-zagging out from underneath their fringe.

It seemed that the Tri-Wizard Tournament had gotten even more complicated…

 **CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **So, there you have it. I copied and pasted a lot from the original story's first chapter, as those who read** ** _The Cauldron_** **know. Of course, it was suitably edited.**

 **I think this story has more potential than the original. The fusion between the two universes is less complicated by far, I have a VERY interesting pairing for Harry, and I'm sure some of you are already making guesses as to why Chara hates Voldemort. Plus, having Alphys as Harry's adoptive mother seems original, and adorable. Alphys really needs a hug badly.**

 **No numbered annotations for this chapter.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Tri-Wizard Tournament

**CHAPTER 2:**

 **THE TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT**

 _Harry looked around the caverns he was being led through in wonder, mixed in with trepidation, though he never heard the word before. It was understandable. A part of him believed that he had died, and had woken up in some bizarre afterlife, populated by Monsters. He couldn't call it Hell, because everyone was so nice to him, despite being, well, Monsters. Purgatory, maybe? There was lava and fire, once they moved through into what Alphys called Hotland._

 _Another less speculative part of him was trusting Alphys. Why? She seemed as nervous as he felt, or at least to some degree. In his eight years of life so far, seven of which was spent with the Dursleys, Harry had little positive contact with people in general, save for a couple of teachers and Mrs Figg, and even then, that wasn't much. He was treated as a servant by the Dursleys, with contempt._

 _They came to a pair of massive doors, and entered. Harry goggled at the vast, clinical space, with a computer workstation surrounded by detritus of all kinds, a massive screen, and a number of benches. A pair of escalators led up._

 _However, Harry froze when he saw someone sauntering up to them. Someone who was an ambulatory skeleton. Dressed in a blue hoodie and trousers, with slippers, and squat, but still a skeleton. "Hey, Alphys, I just brought you a whole bunch of…" The skeleton, whose voice was a deep drawl, blinked. Well, the two lights in his dark eye sockets seemed to wink out briefly. "Huh."_

 _Alphys said, "Thank you, Sans. This is Harry. I found him…in the D-D-Dump."_

 _"That's rubbish," Sans remarked._

 _"Sans, now's not the time for your p-puns," Alphys said sharply. "I might need your help."_

 _Sans looked at her, then at Harry. His gaze seemed to peer into Harry's very soul, assessing him. After a moment, Sans said to Alphys, "You need me to get anything? I know you've got medical supplies here, but you might need a bed roll or something. Or maybe I can get some Nice Cream from Snowdin?"_

 _"Bedding would be great, and so would some Nice C-C-Cream," Alphys said. "I'm going to call the Q-Q-Queen. She's the best of us when it comes to healing magic."_

 _"But…magic isn't real," Harry said quietly._

 _"Kid, dunno what you've been told, but…abracadabra." And with that, a snap of bony fingers, and a brief strobe of darkness, Sans disappeared._

 _Harry gaped, while Alphys went over to her workstation. "I knew I should have taken my phone with me," she muttered quietly, taking a small rectangle of metal and plastic from it. After fiddling with it, she put it up to her ear. After a moment, she spoke into it. "Hello, Chara? I'm s-s-sorry, but is your mother there? Oh, good. Would you k-k-kindly put her on?" There was another pause, before Alphys spoke again. "Your Majesty? Yes, I kn-kn-know. Listen, I need your help. Another human has fallen d-d-down…okay, see you soon." She hung up, and then looked at Harry. "Q-Q-Queen Toriel is on her way."_

 _"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "Who are you guys?"_

 _"We're Monsters. C-C-Centuries ago, there was a war between humans and M-M-Monsters. Humans won, and they sealed us Underground behind a B-B-Barrier. We're Underground even now. Sorry, but you're stuck here."_

 _Harry didn't know what to say to that. But then, a question came to mind, one that he felt silly about asking. "Can…can I have a bedroom? Not a cupboard?"_

 _Alphys blinked, before she said, "Of course you can have a bedroom! But why did you say cupboard?"_

 _Harry winced. Why did he mention that? It would take a little while for Alphys to winkle the truth out of him, and she was angry. But not at him. He didn't know it at the time, but he had inadvertently awoken maternal feelings in the lizard woman. And while he was no longer with the Dursleys, he would soon gain a family of his own, and friends…_

* * *

Toriel stared along the corridor in astonishment. Normally, there would be waves of light and darkness coursing along it, denoting the Barrier that kept them inside. But now, it was just plain light, if somewhat dim. "So, the Barrier is down? We are free?"

"Yes," Asgore said, uncharacteristically solemn. Then again, learning of the abduction of one's family, as well as valuable friends, did tend to do that. "At the moment, I am keeping that news quiet. As much as all the monsters wish to leave the Underground, I am worried about the reaction of the humans. And there's the whereabouts of our children, along with Undyne, Alphys, and Harry, to consider. Something took them, Tori, and managed to smash the Barrier in the process. It would take powerful magic to remove the Barrier, even from the outside. And in all likelihood, it was either Harry or Chara targeted, perhaps even both. They're both valuable to Voldemort, albeit for differing reasons."

"Do you think his followers may have targeted them somehow?" Toriel asked, before shaking her head. "Stupid question. It's either that, or Magical Britain found a way to retrieve their Boy Who Lived, and the others got caught up. Given that it's Halloween, one of the main occult festivals of the year…the ritual must be powerful." Toriel blinked when she realised something. "I believe I know what might have been used. That blue fire…it reminded me of the Goblet of Fire."

"The humans still have it?" Asgore mused. "I remember when my father gave it as a peace offering during that treaty signing, back when I was still a lad."

"Gotta be really old then," said a deep voice from behind them. They turned to find Sans. "Sorry about the wait. Had to read Papyrus his bedtime story, and tell him I'd be gone for a little while. I presume you want me to see if I can track down the others?"

Toriel nodded. "We know of your…abilities, to use shortcuts via teleportation. Can you visualise your destination?"

"Of course. Otherwise, I'd become someone's new spare skeleton right through their body, or someone might see me doing it when I don't want them to, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?" Sans closed his eyes, well, eye sockets, and then said, "They're at a castle, north of here. Really old, and full of magic. Dunno whether it was around when we were banished, though. They've come to no harm, though Undyne's threatening to give some of those present an impromptu colonoscopy with her spear. Doesn't look like they're under duress either. Look, you want me to go over there, right, see if I can bring them back? I'm gonna have to do a few hops, and even that's gonna take a few trips. Using my shortcuts tires me out, especially if I've got passengers. And I don't think those wizards are gonna take kindly to a skeleton popping up, even if it's your friendly neighbourhood Sans. Of course, if they're not careful, then they're gonna have a bad time…"

* * *

Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose, as he was having something of a bad time. What should have been a joyous occasion, the return of Harry Potter to Magical Britain, had been complicated by many factors, all of whom were standing in his office.

The main factor had been the rather boisterous fish-woman with red hair that reminded him so much of Lily's. Oh, and she claimed to be one of Harry's adoptive mothers. She had summoned a small swarm of spears made of magic, and had threatened people until she learned exactly what was going on. It had taken Dumbledore all of his diplomacy to calm her down, though Crouch's snide comments at the Monster and Bagman's fatuous glee at Harry Potter participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament didn't help. Neither did the ensuing arguments with the other headmasters, when Karkaroff insulted the quintet, and Undyne threatened to shove a spear, in her words, ' _so far up your arse, you can pick your teeth with the pointy end_ '. And, of course, there was a generally bad reaction all round when Crouch and Bagman revealed that Harry was stuck in the Tournament, via magical contract, lest he lose his magic. Only Bagman looked pleased at this.

And that was before Moody had come in with his theory about Potter being forced into the Tournament to kill him.

Eventually, in order to try and find out exactly what had happened, he had asked Harry and his small entourage, along with Minerva and Severus, to come with him to his office. There was something hauntingly familiar about the human girl who had accompanied them, Chara. Or maybe it was the red eyes, reminiscent of Tom after he had descended too far into the darkest of magic…

And there was the rather anxious yellow lizard woman, Alphys, and the nervous but friendly goat boy, Asriel. All in all, they were a motley crew. And the tale they had to tell was an odd one.

Dumbledore winced when he heard about the Dursleys' treatment of Harry. He had hoped the Dursleys would, at their worst, treat Harry with coldness. Not with this active abuse. Then again, some of the blame laid with him and how he treated the reports of Mrs Figg. What's more, the quintet noticed it.

Severus then made the mistake of sneering. "Potter's exaggerating. Doubtless for more attention."

Surprisingly, it was not Undyne who retorted (though her eye narrowed dangerously), but Alphys, who looked angry. "While healing him, Toriel found evidence of broken bones going back at least four years. Ribs, mostly. Do you dare contradict the Queen of our people?"

"I'd dare contradict anyone who is a dunderhead," Severus sneered back.

"Which is anyone but you, punk?" Undyne said, a dangerous leer playing about her features. "Alphy here's got more brains in the tip of her tail than you've got under that greasy mop you dare to call hair."

"Well, as you both seem to be Potter's parents, I daresay she seems to have poor taste in suitors, and setting a bad example for him. Not that either of you could ever set a good example," Severus retorted with a vicious smirk.

"Severus, enough!" Minerva snapped. "We are making contact with the first Monsters to emerge from the Underground in centuries if not millennia, and your diplomatic skills leave a lot to be desired!"

"And you call threatening Karkaroff with a spear through his alimentary canal diplomacy?" Snape asked with an acid edge to his voice.

"Enough!" Dumbledore snapped. Severus shot him an insolent glare, but was silent. Once he was sure the former Death Eater was holding his tongue, Dumbledore said, feeling every year of his age, "I accept that I made a mistake placing Harry with the Dursleys, a rather disastrous one, but I had my reasons at the time, reasons which have since become moot. All I can do is offer my sincerest apologies. I am grateful that Harry has found a new family."

Chara rolled her eyes. "If you meant that, you wouldn't have left him with those _humans_ in the first place." The way she used that word, filled with so much contempt and venom for a child her age, struck Dumbledore as highly disturbing, more so than her red eyes. "There would have been kinder ways of shielding him from his fame and enemies, and better ways, but wizards and witches have even less common sense than Muggles, and that's saying something." As Minerva opened her mouth to object, Chara said, "And please don't say to show respect to him, even if he is supposedly the greatest wizard of our age. Respect is earned, not granted, and Dumbledore has done nothing to earn mine, let alone Harry's."

"Chara," Asriel said quietly in an admonishing tone. But before anything could happen, there was a strobe of darkness…

…And suddenly, a squat animated skeleton in a blue hoodie was standing in the office, grinning. "'Sup?"

Severus and Minerva had their wands trained on the skeleton (and considering it had somehow Apparated in Hogwarts, that was understandable), who waggled a chiding finger. "Do you wanna have a bad time? Cast a spell at me, and you'll have a bad time." Dumbledore indicated for them to lower the wands. Judging by the recognition on the others' faces, they knew the skeleton. So it was a Monster of some kind.

"Sans?" Asriel asked. "What're you doing here?"

"Lookin' for you. Apparently the Barrier around Mount Ebott's gone. Your parents sent me here to retrieve you. Gonna have to make a few trips, though."

"Umm, Sans, there's a few complications," Alphys said, before explaining the magical contract, as well as the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Dammit," Sans said quietly. "And the Goblet is a pretty ancient artifact, one of our own. Can't worm your way out of it. Welp, Harry, looks like you'll be representing us in the Tournament. Gimme a moment." He fished out a blocky piece of metal and plastic. Dumbledore recognised it as some sort of mobile phone, but far more compact than anything he had seen Muggles use.

"Electronics don't work in Hogwarts," Minerva said.

"Electronics not shielded against magic. But we use magic all the time, so it'd be pretty dumb not to make tech that doesn't short out around it," Sans said. "Got a weak signal, might be able to do it." After a moment, he said, "Tori? It's me. Look, they're safe and sound, more or less, but Harry's bound by some magical contract into these guy's idea of a tournament, or he loses his magic. Yeah, I know. The Goblet of Fire was involved. And as it happened in front of representatives of these guys' government, I think there's gonna be fallout that Harry's been living with Monsters all this time. Okay, got it. I'll see if I can make a Portkey. Given that the Underground's open now, there's no danger from it hitting the Barrier if it overshoots. Okay, see you soon." He sighed as he hung up.

"Sans…can you take Asriel and Undyne back?" Chara asked. "Undyne's got her duties, and Asriel, well…he is the prince. Alphys and I will stay with Harry for the time being."

"You sure about that?" Sans asked. Noticing Chara's expression, he shrugged. "Okay, fine."

Undyne went over to Harry, ruffling his hair. "Knock 'em dead, son. And remember what I taught you. I'll come to visit when I can, assuming you ain't allowed back outside of these tasks."

"I will," Harry said.

"I'm rooting for you, Harry," Asriel said with a smile. "Look after my sister for me, okay?"

"I think it's more the other way around," Harry said. "Take care, Azzy."

The three returning monsters smiled, and then, disappeared in a strobe of darkness. "I think we have suitable guest accommodation," Dumbledore said. "But your friend Sans was correct. While I am not so wary of Monsters to consider them an automatic threat, the Ministry will be in uproar."

Chara chuckled. "Let them. They're a bunch of sheep who scatter at the first sight of a wolf, or curs who hasten to join it in the hope of becoming part of the pack." She smirked, and then said, utterly deadpan, "Growl."

"Before you go…may I ask you something, Miss Chara? You seem familiar with our world. Were you raised in a wizarding household?"

Chara's eyes narrowed, and any jovial nature left her face. " _Raised_ would suggest that I had a childhood, which I only got with the Dreemurrs. You wouldn't know the woman who gave birth to me. All I was told by the Carrows, who kept me until I escaped them, was that she was _just a filthy Blood Traitor_. But you do know my father. Or maybe you don't." A malicious smirk came over her features once more. "He's something of a Riddle, after all…"

 **CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **A few of you probably saw this coming. Yes, Chara is Voldemort's daughter. Yes, I know, they've pulled this sort of bullshit before, but hear me out, because I think this makes a scary amount of sense.**

 **Chara is frequently depicted with red eyes, usually in fandom, but also during the Soulless Pacifist Ending. She (I'm using the pronoun appropriate to my story) also had a twisted sense of right and wrong, even before she died. So I was inspired to make her Voldemort's daughter. My backstory for her, as revealed later, is that Voldemort raped a so-called Blood Traitor, and took the resulting child to be his heir (well, as a spare body in case he lost his). Chara was conceived at roughly the same time as Harry, and was born around the same time, within a couple of days. We will learn more about her later, but she was basically raised by the Carrows, who aren't the nicest people, to say the least.**

 **Incidentally, the flashbacks will be presented in anachronic order after a certain point (probably after the fourth chapter when I get round to writing it). For the third chapter, I want to start with Harry meeting Chara and the Dreemurrs, while for the fourth, I want him to meet Undyne for the first time.**

 **Now, in case you're wondering why Sans is creating a Portkey, he's doing it so that Harry can come back to the Underground when he wants to, or for his safety. I'm putting into the backstory that Portkeys were one of the things Monsters thought up. However, the Barrier prevented them from being used. Now that it's no longer there, Portkeys can be used with impunity, more or less.**

 **Incidentally, I decided that I didn't want to write out the whole BS of the other Champions' and the headmasters' reactions to Harry being chosen yet again. That's why I skipped straight to Dumbledore's office.**

 **No numbered annotations this time.**


	4. Chapter 3: Aftershock

**CHAPTER 3:**

 **AFTERSHOCK**

 _Harry decided that he liked Alphys and Sans. It was a fairly tentative thing, but Alphys was showing him more kindness in the minutes she had known him than the Dursleys had ever done during his time with them. And Sans was like an uncle he should have had, making bad jokes that Harry couldn't help but giggle at._

 _But he was soon to meet more pivotal figures of his future._

 _The door to the lab slid open, and a trio of figures walked through. Harry, who was sitting at Alphys' workstation (once his injuries had been determined to be not too serious, at least for the moment), stared at the three figures. One of them seemed normal, a brown-haired girl, a somewhat pretty one, though her expression was suspicious, and her red eyes were weird, if pretty. But the other two looked like goats! One looked feminine and older, with a purple robe with a distinctive emblem on the front, while the other was a boy about his age._

 _"I came as soon as I could," the goat-woman said. "I'm surprised that you didn't send Sans for me."_

 _"His injuries don't seem serious. I was more concerned about…checking his medical history."_

 _Harry blinked, and then asked, "Who are you?"_

 _"Howdy! I'm Asriel Dreemurr. This is my mum, Toriel, and this is my sister, Chara," the goat-boy said._

 _"Only been here a month, and he's calling me his sister," the girl remarked, with a roll of her crimson eyes. "So, what's your name?"_

 _"Harry Potter."_

 _Harry was unprepared for the reaction of the girl, who blinked, before marching right up to him. He flinched away, thinking she was going to hit him as she raised her hand…only to brush away his fringe, revealing his scar. She even poked it, frowning._

 _"Huh. It might be him," Chara said to herself. Noticing everyone looking at her, she said, "I'll explain later."_

 _Toriel nodded, before gently laying a hand on Harry, and closing her eyes. Harry felt a strange, warm sensation suffuse his body, and the aches and pains he felt faded. Toriel suddenly gasped. "What horrid creatures could do…Alphys, Sans, come with me a moment. Asriel, Chara, could you please look after Harry for the moment?"_

* * *

 _Alphys was dreading what Toriel was about to say when she took them aside. "So, what did you find out?" Sans asked._

 _"I don't know what is worse…what Chara's guardians did to her, or what Harry's did," Toriel said with a scowl. "Harry has suffered from chronic malnutrition for some time. A number of his bones have been broken repeatedly over the years. He has a number of scars, and the oldest, the one on his forehead, has a residue of dark magic. It feels like a fragment of a soul. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would say it was a Horcrux."_

 _"A what?" Alphys asked._

 _"Humans in search of immortality can use a foul ritual to split their souls, using a murder as the catalyst, binding it to a physical object to act as an anchor to the physical realm," Toriel said grimly. "What is more, the fragment of soul in that scar is so small, the guilty party must have done it multiple times before. I remember a warlock who tried to exploit us who used the same technique."_

 _Sans snorted. "Must've been insane. So, what's the fragment doing in the kid?"_

 _"I don't know. But I think Chara knows something. She recognised his name, and she looked at his scar," Toriel said. "She hasn't spoken much of her life before falling, though…"_

* * *

 _There was something odd about Chara's eyes, the way they bored into Harry's own. He felt almost a pressure from that gaze. Then, after a while, that pressure relented, and Chara's face turned into a scowl. Harry recoiled, only for Chara to shake her head. "I'm not angry at you, Harry Potter. I'm angry at those…_ _ **humans**_ _you had to endure."_

 _"Sis…did you use Legilimency on him?" Asriel asked quietly._

 _"I had to. He could be a threat. As it is, he's okay."_

 _"What's Legil…Legilem…Ligiman…" Harry began, but found himself tripping over the word._

 _"Legilimency is using magic to read minds," Chara said. "Well, it's not as simple as reading a mind, but…I had to learn how to use it to survive. Anyway, I wanted to see if you were the real Harry Potter. I think you are. Problem is, you don't know a thing about your parents, and what you mean to the magic-using idiots on the Surface." She then smiled slightly, the first time she had done so. Harry was surprised at how warm it was. "You're pretty cute, in a scrawny kind of way."_

 _Harry didn't know whether to be upset at Chara for intruding on his mind like that without his permission, or demand answers to questions, or just cry. The two other children, however, gave him a hug. Chara then said, "You're safe now. Safe from_ _ **them**_ _…"_

* * *

"So, this is Hogwarts?" Harry asked, looking around the bedroom they had been given. "It's nice and comfortable, but the décor's medieval."

Chara snorted. "What do you expect? Magic shorts out electrics and electronics unless they're shielded. With that, plus the inbred Pureblood morons trying to keep the status quo, I'm surprised they have their own version of radio." She peered at the beds. "Silencing Charms on the beds, but keyed to snoring. Well, at least we won't have to worry about Alphys making too much noise."

Alphys scowled at the human girl. "I don't snore…much."

"Well, you never do after you and Undyne have been at it," Chara said with a smirk. "You still made quite a bit of noise beforehand, though."

"Chara!" Alphys yelped, embarrassed by the teenager's bluntness.

"Chara, can you please stop making embarrassing comments about my mothers' sex life?" Harry asked. "Anyway, do you think it was wise to mention who your father was?"

"I only hinted at it, and the only one who seemed to get it was Dumbledore. I'd call him an old goat, but that's an insult to Mum and Dad," Chara said. "Anyway, I don't care what the Carrows thought after I took that inheritance test at Gringotts, Tom Marvolo Riddle has to be Voldemort. It's in his name. Tom Marvolo Riddle can be re-arranged to 'I am Lord Voldemort'." Chara scoffed. "If I was gonna be a Dark Lady, I'd want something a bit more ominous and creative. Like…the Demon Who Comes When You Call Its Name(1). Of course, Voldemort did something like that with the Taboo curse on his little nickname."

"Well, don't emulate Azzy with his 'God of Hyperdeath' thing, please," Harry said. He looked over at Alphys. "Mum, do you know much about magical contracts?"

Alphys shook her head. "My specialty is in technology and soul magic. And thaumatobiology and Determination studies. Magical contracts are not my field. Which reminds me, if we can get away from this for a few days, I'll have to finish up Mettaton's EX body."

"You won't be able to, Mum," Harry said, an impish grin twitching at his lips. "You get nosebleeds every time you try."

He loved Alphys, he really did, but he did enjoy teasing her a little. Sometimes, it was with Sans and Toriel-style bad puns. Sometimes, it was with some innuendo like Chara just did.

"Well, let's face it," Chara said, sitting down next to Harry on his bed, and putting an arm around his shoulders, "if he wasn't a narcissistic junkheap, I'd get a nosebleed seeing that body. I'm glad he still sees his cousin. Blooky's a wimp, but he makes some pretty neat tunes."

After a moment, Harry addressed the elephant in the room. "…Do you think the others will be okay? I mean, that guy Crouch was from the Ministry of Magic, and Undyne threatened him."

"Bagman was there too. He seemed inordinately pleased that Harry is in this Tournament," Chara mused. "He's certainly one of the suspects. But if we're lucky, these idiots forgot why the Monsters were sealed up in the first place. We only remember it because the survivors put up those plaques in Waterfall, as well as having people who were alive then, like my parents, and that old fart Gerson."

"Chara, don't call him a fart. Gerson was one of our greatest warriors, and he's certainly forgotten more about all manners of things than any of us could ever hope to learn," Alphys rebuked gently.

Chara sighed. Harry knew that Chara had grown, gradually, to respect the timid Royal Scientist, if only because she was Harry's mother. That, and Undyne had helped Alphys grow a spine. Understated, yes, but Alphys had an inner reserve of strength that came out at unexpected times. "My point is, given how the prevailing view towards sentient Magical Creatures is at the moment, Mum and Dad will have to be careful. These bastards are treacherous."

* * *

Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, could be said, if one was inclined to be kind, was a man who made sure everything was kept running, more or less. In truth, he was an indecisive man who got into his position mostly through politicking than any administrative ability, and tended to share the opinions of anyone who shared Galleons with him, usually Lucius Malfoy.

He also detested shouting and arguments, and yet, Barty Crouch was doing both, arguing with Ludo Bagman and Amelia Bones. Fudge had heard rumours of Crouch overworking himself since the events of the Quidditch World Cup and the riot by former Death Eaters, but even he could see that the man seemed perilously close to the edge. Maybe it was the dismissal of his House Elf because she had been caught with that Weasley boy's wand, the one that had been used to cast the Dark Mark during the riot.

Eventually, Bagman assented to giving Pensieve memories, while Crouch refused. Bones and Fudge viewed them, and Bones scowled afterwards. "As antagonistic as that Undyne woman was," Bones said icily, "you could have handled that considerably better, Crouch, especially as you head up International Cooperation."

"And you would have?" Crouch sneered. He had never forgiven Bones for, in his eyes, usurping his position as head of the DMLE. Bones merely glared at him, not dignifying that with a response.

"It's still most extraordinary," Bagman said in his fatuous manner, though he looked like he wanted a few glasses of firewhiskey to further addle his brain, damaged by Bludger impacts over his career. "The Boy Who Lived, living with Monsters, eh? Now the Fourth Champion. Don't the Monsters live beneath Mount Ebott, somewhere up north?"

Fudge nodded. "And Croaker notified me to tell me that the Barrier is broken. The Department of Mysteries had instruments monitoring the Barrier. I had thought them myth before tonight."

"What do we do about the Monsters, Minister?" Bones asked.

Fudge closed his eyes. To tell the truth, he was well aware that he was a peacetime Minister of Magic. He didn't want to go through a war like that Voldemort waged again. And while he was blissfully (and wilfully? Perhaps) unaware that he was surrounded by people who would either ignite the blaze or fan it, he wasn't going to go out of his way to provoke war.

And while the Monsters had been defeated quite easily in the few histories left of that war, Fudge didn't want to start another war. For all Undyne's belligerence, she had just been kidnapped, and if she really was the adoptive mother of Harry Potter, creature or not, it was understandable that she felt protective. The other two Monsters had been considerably more diplomatic.

Had his Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge been there, the outcome might have been different. But she had a rather bad illness that saw her holed up in St Mungo's, to her and Fudge's mutual displeasure. If Lucius Malfoy was there, he would have agreed to overtures of peace, albeit with a Malfoy twist on it.

Eventually, Fudge made what was one of his most important decisions as Minister of Magic, and he made it more or less on his own. And he got it right, more or less. "Amelia, I would like you to take a group of Aurors, along with Crouch's assistant…Weasley, wasn't it? Also Dirk Cresswell. Given how he deals with Goblins, he may be able to negotiate with them."

Amelia nodded, and left. Crouch looked livid. "Why are you sending Weatherby instead of me?!" he demanded.

"Because you've made a poor impression on them already, Crouch. If that Undyne woman was telling the truth, and she is the head of the Royal Guard, imagine what would happen if she saw you walking up to negotiate with their rulers? It'd be better that someone from your department be sent, true, which is why I chose Weasley. I think tempers should be left to cool first before I can send you there."

After a moment, Crouch seemed to accept it with a stiff nod. With bad grace, true, but he accepted it. "If that is all, Minister," he said tightly, before leaving without waiting for any kind of dismissal. Then again, that was par for the course for Crouch.

"My word, interesting times we live in, eh, what?" Bagman said, smiling nervously. "The Boy Who Lived, living with Monsters, and the Monsters are free. That goat-like boy and the lizard woman seemed friendly enough. And now Harry Potter is in the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

Interesting times…yes, Fudge thought so too. But unlike Bagman, he had heard of a curse, supposedly of Chinese origin. _May you live in interesting times_. He just hoped it didn't get to **that** level of interesting…

 **CHAPTER 3 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **Whoa, Fudge actually made a good decision for once? Then again, broken clocks are right twice a day.**

 **Now, before you people start complaining about Chara using Legilimency on Harry, keep in mind that she has a skewed moral compass, to say the least. Not only that, but she's worried that Harry may very well be a threat to her and her new family, whom she has just gotten used to as of the flashback. What she finds in him actually has her trusting him, insomuch as Chara can trust a human being. Her love for Harry in the present, while twisted and a little** ** _yandere_** **-ish, is genuine, whereas her father is incapable of feeling love.**

 **1\. This is what Chara calls herself (well, themselves, given the gender ambiguity of Chara and Frisk in the game) in a line of dialogue.**


	5. Chapter 4: Many Meetings

**CHAPTER 4:**

 **MANY MEETINGS**

 _Harry's first encounter with the woman who was to be his second adoptive mother was…interesting, to say the least. The Dreemurrs had gone home after Toriel used healing magic on him, and suggested a regime of medicines. Harry was left nibbling at a Nice Cream, a Monster food that tasted better than almost anything he'd ever had before. Then again, he was lucky to have a decent meal, never mind a nice-tasting one. Sans had stayed with him a while, cracking a few puns that had Harry giggling, despite himself, before leaving._

 _Alphys was currently using some sort of machine on him. It didn't hurt, but he still felt ill at ease, though Alphys reassured him in a kind way. Toriel, Asriel, Alphys, Sans, they were all so nice to him…and, in her own way, so was Chara. She had at least hugged him, and called him cute, which was more than what the Dursleys did._

 _Then, the doors to the lab slid open, and Harry heard someone mutter, "Hate bloody Hotland." The voice was a woman's, but lower and a little more raspier than Harry knew women's voices to be. Then, the owner of the voice called out, "Hey, Alphys! You there?"_

 _"I'm here, Undyne," Alphys called back. Noticing Harry's anxious look, she said, "Undyne's n-n-nice when you get to know her."_

 _"Alphys, word on the Echo Flowers is that you found a human kid in the Dump!" spoke the newcomer._

 _"Yes, Undyne, and he's a bit t-t-timid, so please, keep it d-d-down," Alphys said._

 _"Gah, fine," said Undyne, as she turned the corner, revealing herself to Harry. Harry stared. The woman was dressed in jeans and a black singlet, had an eyepatch over one eye, and a long ponytail of red hair that seemed strangely familiar. But she had blue, scaly skin, gills along her neck, almost no nose, a mouth filled with jagged teeth, and her one eye was yellow, with a slitted pupil._

 _She peered at Harry, before saying, "Take a picture, kid, it'll last longer. I heard the Dreemurrs have been here already, save for the King, and yet, he's still gawking at the sight of a new Monster."_

 _"Undyne, he's only been here a c-couple of hours," Alphys said. "Harry, this is Undyne, rising s-s-star of the Royal G-Guard, and a friend of mine. Undyne, this is Harry P-P-Potter."_

 _Harry blinked, before saying, "You have pretty hair."_

 _Undyne stared at him incredulously, before chuckling. "Thanks, kid. Guess you were starin' at me for a good reason." She ruffled his own hair affectionately. He nearly recoiled at her touch, if only out of habit because of what had happened when the Dursleys touched him. She noticed, and then looked at Alphys. The dinosaur-like Monster shook her head and tapped her lips._

 _"Scuse me a moment, kid, I wanna talk to Alphy," Undyne said. "One day, though, I'm gonna get you into some training, make you big and strong." She grinned in a surprisingly encouraging manner, and Harry, shakily, returned it._

* * *

 _"Okay, Alphy, spill. What the hell's wrong with the kid?" Undyne asked as they moved into another area of the lab._

 _"He's like Ch-Ch-Chara, Undyne. He's been abused," Alphys said quietly._

 _Undyne blinked, before she said, "He ain't creepy like Chara. Then again, I guess they don't always turn out like she did. Damned humans. They treat their kids like shit, don't they?"_

 _"Not all of them do, Undyne. But…Chara recognised H-H-Harry, or at least his n-n-name."_

 _"Huh. So he's famous or something?"_

 _"Ch-Ch-Chara was going to explain. I think she's t-t-telling her parents," Alphys said._

 _After a moment, Undyne asked, "So, you gonna keep him?" As Alphys spluttered, Undyne said, "What? He's a cute kid, as far as humans go. Pretty scrawny and wimpy, but that's before he met me. Once he's up to it, I'm gonna whip him into shape! He's gonna be so strong, he'll beat the shit out of any humans who try to bully him!" The fish woman cackled at the thought of a protégé, not knowing it would be the beginning of a deeper relationship…_

* * *

Dumbledore watched as Harry and his companions entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning. He had to admit, he was pleased the boy was so well-loved. And before they had left his office, Dumbledore had discreetly tested for the Horcrux he had suspected in Harry's scar. To his relief, it was no longer there. If the Monsters managed to remove it, then he would be eternally grateful.

Harry moved with an assuredness that, despite Severus' thoughts on the matter, did not border on arrogance. Confidence, yes, but not arrogance. Maybe he could survive the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

The lizard-woman, Alphys, was another matter. She seemed rather nervous, but she was most vehement in her defence of Harry's account last night. She seemed very Ravenclaw.

It was Chara who concerned him most of all. She had heavily implied that she was Voldemort's daughter, though how that came about, Dumbledore had no idea. She was no Horcrux, but she did share some of Voldemort's tendencies, back when he was still calling himself Tom Riddle. And she seemed to have a strong misanthropic streak, though she showed concern for Asriel. And Harry. The two seemed close, which could be good or bad, whether Chara was a bad influence on Harry, or Harry a good influence on Chara.

Still, how would Harry react to his fame? The strange group was heading over to the Gryffindor table. Given that the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables were fuller than usual due to the addition of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students respectively, that was hardly surprising. Still, it did bode well…

* * *

Harry was acutely aware of the stares he was getting as he, Chara and Alphys sat down at the table. Thanks to Chara, he knew how well-known he was to the wizards, and that accounted for most of the stares. Alphys would no doubt attract a number of stares herself, given the fact that she wasn't human. Chara probably got some herself, both for her closeness to Harry and her red eyes.

A space opened up between a rather bushy-haired girl and a stocky boy about his age. Harry, sandwiched between Alphys and Chara as buffers, sat down there. And then, the inevitable question came from the lips of a redhead boy who had paused between stuffing his face. "Are you really Harry Potter?"

"Yeah. Wish I wasn't, given what I'm famous for," Harry said.

"His birth parents dying at the hands of Voldemort," Chara clarified.

There were the usual flinches or gasps, though Harry noted that the bushy-haired girl didn't do that. Muggleborn, perhaps? The girl was turning to Alphys. "So, who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Doctor Alphys, Royal Scientist," Alphys said.

"Hermione Granger," the girl said, smiling at Alphys. "The Monsters have scientists?"

"Of course! Don't humans?"

"Well, yes, but not wizard scientists. Unless you count what I heard the Unspeakables do. And that fish woman?"

"My wife, Undyne," Alphys said. "Harry here is our adopted son."

A number of people, including the redhead, spat out food or drink at that. Harry didn't know whether it was because Alphys admitted that she was in a lesbian relationship, or that he was their adopted son. Hermione, thankfully, seemed only mildly bemused, before shrugging. "Huh. Looks like Monsters are more accepting than humans. What's your field of science?"

"Mostly robotic engineering, soul studies, electronics, biology…" Alphys shrugged. "I'm a bit of a jack of all trades, by necessity. A Royal Scientist has to have some knowledge of a large number of subjects, even though we may have specialties. My predecessor, Dr WD Gaster, specialised in dimensional engineering, for example." Alphys pursed her lips at the thought of the former Royal Scientist. "Unfortunately, he suffered from a rather catastrophic laboratory accident that erased him from existence. Even now, it's an effort to remember him. I only remember him because Sans reminds me."

Hermione's eyes were wide. "How can you have a laboratory accident that erases you from existence? What sort of things was he working on?"

"You'd be surprised at the stuff Mum works on," Harry said. "As for Gaster…well, even Sans isn't sure, and he's the one who remembers Gaster most. Gaster had his accident shortly before Chara ended up in the Underground. I think it was something to do with breaking or bypassing the Barrier. Bit of a moot point now."

"Speaking of which," Chara said, scowling, "I wonder how Mum and Dad are doing? And Azzy, for that matter."

"Azzy's fine, Chara," Harry said.

"Azzy?" the redhead asked. "Do you mean that goat Monster?"

"Yes. Asriel Dreemurr, the prince of the Monsters," Harry said. "Chara's brother, and a good friend."

"With the Barrier down, it's only a matter of time before the Ministry sends someone to poke their noses into it," Chara remarked grumpily. "And knowing how well things went for the Monsters last time…" After a moment, the teenaged girl sighed, before asking, "Okay. I want to know who's who in the zoo."

"Sorry?" the stocky boy asked.

"I know Hermione's name, but I don't know your names, and other than Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and that Moody guy, I don't know who to look out for in this school. I want to know who we need to avoid annoying."

"I'm Ron Weasley," the redhead said. "That's Neville Longbottom," he indicated the stocky boy, "and that pair further up the table are the Terrible Twins, Fred and George. My older brothers. That girl's my little sister, Ginny." Ginny seemed a little starstruck with Harry, Harry noticed. "McGonagall's the Head of Gryffindor. She's all right, but pretty strict. Snape's the Head of Slytherin, and he's a right old git."

"Ron, language," Hermione hissed.

"I got that impression last night," Harry said dryly. "He doesn't seem to like me."

"He doesn't like anyone, save for the Slytherins," Ron said. "Professor Flitwick is the Head of Ravenclaw, and Professor Sprout is the Head of Hufflepuff," he continued, indicating a diminutive teacher and a plump woman respectively. "I don't think you have much to worry about, except from the Slytherins. A lot of You Know Who's army came from that lot."

Chara rolled her eyes. "Any who you would trust?"

Ron seemed baffled by the question, but Neville said, "Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, Tracey Davis, and Blaise Zabini are all alright, I guess. But even with those who aren't in Death Eater families, they like to use gossip and rumour to their own ends."

"That git Malfoy's one to avoid," Ron said quietly, indicating a pale, blonde-haired boy with pinched features and a haughty, aristocratic air. "His family's rich, but as Dark as they come. Keeps calling Hermione names."

"Mublood, right?" Chara asked. When Hermione and Ron nodded, Chara snorted. "Idiots. I probably would have ended up in Slytherin, and I know that the Blood Purity ideology is bollocks. Anyway, a lot of so-called Muggleborns are probably descended from Squibs."

"That makes sense," Hermione remarked. "Magic is probably affected by multiple genes in the human genome. It may not follow simple Mendelian genetics."

After a moment, Alphys smiled. "I think we're going to get along just fine, Hermione…"

* * *

Trainee Auror " _Don't you fucking_ _ **dare**_ _call me Nymphadora_ " Tonks had seen a number of things in her life so far, even before she became a trainee Auror. But meeting the Monsters of Mount Ebott was one of the weirdest, and yet, she felt that history was in the making here, and for the right reasons for once.

Okay, so Percy Weasley had a major stick up his arse the size of a telephone pole, but despite his stiff and rather pedantic way of speaking, he was making good progress negotiating the King and Queen of the Monsters. And they themselves were a surprisingly warm and welcoming bunch. They were basically a pair of goat people with ridiculously nice attitudes. But while they seemed nice, Asgore and Toriel were far from pushovers, especially the latter. When they disagreed with points that Percy made, they worded that disagreement in such genuinely nice tones, and suggested alternatives, that Percy agreed.

Tonks knew that both Monsters had significant power locked away within, too. She could sense it. Thankfully, Madam Bones had seen fit to bring Aurors along who were less likely to shoot their mouth off about creatures. The Monsters counted as beings under the classification system for magical creatures, unless, like the Merfolk and the Centaurs, they requested otherwise, but Tonks knew more than a few wouldn't see the distinction.

The other Monsters present were a motley, but, for the most part, impressive bunch. There was Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard, a fish-woman with red hair, and who had apparently threatened Barty Crouch with a spear up his arse. Which was weird, because he had an even bigger stick up there than Percy, and it'd stop the spear from being pushed in too far. And apparently Undyne was one of Harry Potter's adoptive mothers. Kid must've had an interesting childhood.

There was the son of the royals, Asriel, a cute kid (literally: he was a young goat-monster, after all), who fidgeted in robes that he clearly didn't wear often. And there was that laid-back skeleton called Sans. Who was currently looking on at the negotiations while standing next to Tonks.

"Nice hair colour," Sans muttered to Tonks. "Born with it, or Metamorphagus?"

"Metamorphagus," Tonks said quietly. "Comes in handy tailing suspects."

"Huh. Maybe you can grow a tail so you'd be literally tailing them," Sans remarked, causing Tonks to groan softly. "Or maybe a dog's nose to sniff out suspects?" He chortled quietly at his own joke, while Tonks glared.

"Do you always make bad jokes?"

"All the time. Usually to rib my brother Papyrus. He's a cool guy, but he's not as humerus as I am, tibia honest. He's boning up on his training to get into the Royal Guard."

Tonks groaned quietly with each bad pun. "You know that this can count as attacking a diplomatic party?" she asked. "Your painful puns count as weapons, you know."

"I thought you humans were made of sternum stuff."

Tonks suppressed a howl of frustration with difficulty. Instead, she decided to make small talk. "So, Harry Potter's been living with you, eh?"

"Yep."

"Huh. I'm a distant relative of his, though given how inbred our world is, that isn't saying much," Tonks said.

"Yeah, it isn't. Heard about that Blood Purity crap from Chara."

"Oh, believe me, I know about it more than most. My mother got disowned from her so-called pure family because she married a Muggleborn. Bunch of inbred morons," Tonks muttered.

"Well, at least these guys are doing fine. Ketchup?" Suddenly, the skeleton was proffering a sauce bottle to Tonks.

"Umm, no thanks."

"Okay. More for me, anyway," Sans said with a shrug, before popping open the lid, and drinking it, in much the same way as one would drink a bottle of beer.

For a moment, Tonks wondered why a skeleton would drink sauce, and for that matter, how, given that he didn't have internal organs that she could see. She decided to dismiss that line of thought as unhelpful, and chalk it up under the column marked ' _Monsters are fucking weird_ '…

 **CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **So, we've had how Harry met Undyne, how Harry and co met the Gryffindors, and how Sans met Tonks. Incidentally, there won't be any Sans/Tonks in this story. I just made that scene up on a whim. Hell, unless you made Sans or Papyrus human, I dunno how you're supposed to ship them with anyone, bar platonic love or low-key romantic love without the sex. And I don't want to know, either.**

 **No numbered annotations this time.**


	6. Chapter 5: All You Need Is LOVE

**CHAPTER 5:**

 **ALL YOU NEED IS** **LOVE**

 _Chara and Asriel came back to see him the next day, escorted by their mother. Chara, it seemed, had explained something to her family, so she asked to speak privately with Harry and Asriel. Chara gave Harry the creeps in some regards. It wasn't her crimson eyes that scared him, as much as her too-old attitude. She seemed like someone thrice her age, at least._

 _"Harry?" Asriel asked. "Chara told us something last night, and we thought you needed to know about it. And golly, it's a scary tale, but I think you need to know it."_

 _Harry nodded uncertainly, before turning to Chara. "What is it, Chara?"_

 _Chara sighed, before she said, "Okay, let's get the basics out of the way, Harry. You and I, like Monsters, can use magic. That means you're a wizard, and I'm a witch. Now, I saw in your memories how those_ _ **animals**_ _you called an uncle, aunt, and cousin treated you for even mentioning the word magic in front of them. Forget what they told you." Chara gently waved her hand through the air, and then summoned a small ball of fire in the palm of it. "They're wrong. No, they were spiteful. I saw them. They weren't ignorant, they were lying. They knew what you were. Why else call you freak? Of course, if they'd call you a freak, an inoffensive boy, what would they call my family?"_

 _Harry didn't trust himself to answer. After a moment, Chara extinguished the ball of fire. "So, you've got that? I saw you doing magic in your memories. Accidental magic, anyway. Now, the second point of business. Your relatives also lied to you about your parents' deaths. They were murdered by an evil wizard called Voldemort. Now, that name was pretty badly feared, and with good reason. He's one of the worst wizards of all time. Few people were brave enough to use his name, partly because he had a curse on it later that allowed him to send people to kill those who spoke his name with impunity. His enemies called him either You Know Who or He Who Must Not Be Named, and his allies called him the Dark Lord."_

 _"You called him Voldemort," Harry pointed out._

 _"Well, yeah. The thing is, the Taboo Curse broke when he, well, most people reckon he died. What happened was, for some reason or other, he got it into his head to target your family, and specifically you. Don't ask me why he'd go to all that trouble to kill you when you were just a baby. The Potters had annoyed him many times. Anyway, he murdered your father and mother, and went to kill you, only to have you survive, and he died. Or he ended up disembodied. Now, given that nobody had survived the Killing Curse, you became famous because you somehow did. I guess that's one of the reasons why you were left with those_ _ **animals**_ _. To shield you from your fame."_

 _After a moment, Harry asked, "Umm, Chara, how do you know this stuff?"_

 _"Ah. Well, as bad as your relatives were, mine were worse. Oh, they treated me well enough, to begin with. But over time…I think they were hoping that I would bring their master back. My father." Chara scoffed. "But they wanted to beat anything that wasn't like my father out of me. And the Muggles treated me with fear, even if they were ignorant of my parentage. But the Carrows, my foster parents, told me who I was, and about the world." She laughed, mirthlessly. "It's funny. Because of who my father was, we should be enemies. As it is, I don't know. Asriel thinks we can be friends anyway."_

 _"Well…I've never really had friends. Maybe we can be?"_

 _"Even though my father is the one who tried to kill you?" Chara asked. "Yeah, that's right. My father's Lord Voldemort."_

 _Harry stared at her in shock. "Why would you tell me this?" he asked quietly after a lengthy pause._

 _"So I can get around to you hating me. That's what humans do."_

 _Chara's bitterness got through to Harry, as did the undertone of resigned sadness hidden in her voice. Harry couldn't quite identify such emotions, but he could certainly identify with them, having felt resignation. And as much as part of him wanted to lash out at her for being the daughter of the man who killed his parents, there was something in him that empathised with him more._

 _So, instead, he stepped forward, and gave her a hug. She stiffened as he did so. "What are you doing?" she hissed._

 _"…I just thought you didn't get enough hugs," Harry said. "I didn't."_

 _Asriel chuckled. "Golly, Chara, that's what Dad said. 'You didn't get enough hugs' is what he said when you told us about you."_

 _"Asriel, you're not helping!" Chara hissed, embarrassed, the near-perpetual blush on her cheeks reddening._

 _"But why don't you like hugs?" Harry asked, releasing her, realising he had made her uncomfortable._

 _"…I just don't like humans. That's all," Chara said, morosely. But then, after a long, uncomfortable pause, she looked at him. "Maybe I can make an exception for you, though…"_

* * *

Chara didn't know what she was thinking that day, letting Harry into her heart. Thanks to his meddling, her plan to have her soul merge with Asriel and thus allow him to gather the souls needed to break the Barrier was scuppered. But then, she would have hurt her family, committing suicide to go through with a plan that might even get Asriel killed in the process. And with the Barrier now gone, maybe that was a moot point.

And maybe it was for the best. Harry's place in her twisted heart had grown. What she felt for the Dreemurrs was familial love. But with Harry, it was romantic love. She hadn't ever expected to feel either form of love, especially not romantic love. She had been deprived of true familial love, as what the Carrows gave her was but a parody of it, a thin veneer that was soon torn off whenever she did anything against their vile expectations.

Still, she loved Harry Potter. She would do many things for him. And that included things that people thought immoral. She would happily kill anyone who threatened him, slowly and painfully.

Chara was well aware that she was a twisted individual to say the least. Whether that was from her father, or from her upbringing at the dubious hands of the Carrows, she didn't know, though she guessed it was more the latter. But she didn't really care. The Monsters were too kind and soft most of the time, with only a few exceptions. If human life was fragile, then a Monster's was even more so by comparison. After Harry thwarted her suicide attempt, she vowed to do what she could to protect the Monsters…and Harry.

Still, this castle reeked of LOVE. Not love, the emotion, but the quality that WD Gaster had named before he had his accident. LOVE, or Level Of ViolEnce. A combination of antipathy and killing intent that weakened Monsters' souls and rendered them more vulnerable than they normally would be. LOVE was generally increased by killing, but other vile acts could increase it, like torture and abuse. Chara was sure that the Dursleys, especially Vernon, would reek of LOVE. Not truly high amounts, but even so…

Maybe it was because she was born to a psychotic killer that Chara was particularly sensitive to LOVE. She didn't know for sure. Of course, she knew Voldemort's LOVE would be through the roof.

That sensitivity was a double-edged sword. It meant she felt ill at ease around people with high LOVE…but it also made them more vulnerable to her and her special abilities.

Humans with magic potential could potentially learn similar soul-manipulation techniques as the Monsters did. It was something Chara learned quite by accident while escaping from the Carrows, and developed while living with the Dreemurrs. Harry had learned his own form of soul manipulation, though it was similar to his mothers' varying styles. Like Undyne, he could summon swords out of pure magic that he could hurl at will at an enemy. Like Alphys and her 'creation' Mettaton, he could 'rewind' the attack to catch enemies who dodged it unaware. Chara, however, could subject her enemies to insanity-inducing hallucinations that could include the soul equivalent of the Death of a Thousand Cuts, if she wished.

She was tempted to foist some sort of punishment on Dumbledore, who was supervising a test he was giving them, a basic test on the various subjects. Instead, once she had finished, she thrust the paper at him contemptuously. "Satisfied?" she asked. "Seriously, half of this stuff is basic stuff, and the rest is just garbage."

Dumbledore sniffed, before reading through the test, and marking it. "Well, your theory in most subject areas is relatively sound. Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, History…how much of this did the Carrows teach you?"

"Until I rebelled, quite a bit. DADA is basically learning the Dark Arts anyway, just defending against them. I taught Harry everything I knew, so if our answers and scores in certain areas are similar, that's why. That being said, I don't like wands, and neither does Harry. Monsters use a variety of foci if they use them at all. Dad uses a trident, for example, and Undyne uses a spear she forms herself. In truth, we're pretty good at wandless combat magic."

Dumbledore nodded as Harry finished, and handed his test over. "Your Potions knowledge is basic."

"We don't need potions for the most part," Alphys, who had been sitting in on the test in Dumbledore's office, pointed out. "We Monsters infuse our magic into our food. It helps heal us when we are injured or sick, and it works on humans too. Our attitudes to magic are different too: while it's an integral part of our bodies, we still use technology. Properly shielded, of course, but still…"

Dumbledore nodded again, marking the tests absentmindedly. "Purebloods tend to have a haughty attitude to technology, especially as it malfunctions around high concentrations of magic. I believe a friend of mine in the Department of Mysteries said that the Muggle term for what happens is something called an electromagnetic pulse, or at least that's the nearest thing. And wizards are slow to embrace innovation and change. The radio and the Knight Bus are amongst the few. But magic can do so many miraculous things, why bother with technology? Sadly, that leads to stagnation. Whereas Muggles have managed to land on the Moon, send robots further into space, have developed machines that may one day think, even have souls."

"Technically, Mum's done that. She's made a robot body for a ghost called Happstablook, only he's now called Mettaton," Harry said. Then, an impish smile came over his features. "Hey, Mum, do you reckon he could be the MC when the First Task comes around?"

Alphys giggled. "He'd certainly make an impression."

Chara chuckled. "A camp robot certainly would."

Dumbledore looked at them, before finishing marking the tests. "Well, by Hogwarts standards, a rather potted education. But I am sure that by Muggle standards, you are rather more rounded. Now, Chara…when you said something last night about your father being a Riddle…you meant his last name, didn't you?"

"Yes. Oh, I didn't know it until later, until after we interrogated that fragment of that bastard's soul we took from Harry's scar. Tom Marvolo Riddle…did you know he made it into an anagram?"

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. " _I am Lord Voldemort_. Chara…I was wondering if you could shed some light on how you came to be…"

"Conceived?" Chara asked, her expression darkening. Bloody meddling goat. "Nothing I can say, beyond what the Carrows taught me. They never told me my mother's name, only that she was a Blood Traitor my father had chained up in a dungeon, and raped. I was to be his heir…well, more like a replacement body once his old one tired out and only his Horcuxes keeping his soul here. As for my life with the Carrows…I don't want to talk about it. They filled my head with shit…and then tried to beat me into submission when I stopped playing along. The Muggles near where they lived weren't much better. They called me a demon when they saw my eyes. I grew up without love, Dumbledore, but surrounded by what Monsters call LOVE, or Level Of ViolEnce. The Dreemurrs, they were the first to give me proper love, despite being Monsters. Harry was the first human to show me any love too."

"And…well, I can't remember my parents, my birth parents…but my mothers were the first to give me any love," Harry said. "Alphys and Undyne." A thought occurred to him. "Actually, how are wizards with same-sex relationships?"

Dumbledore pursed his lips thoughtfully, and Chara got the impression that the question had a somewhat personal nature to him. "At best, they are content to ignore it, but at worst…well, they're generally not accepting, due to the premium placed on siring heirs and the like."

"Figures…" Chara muttered. "Then again, I wonder how they'd view the Boy Who Lived having Voldemort's daughter as a girlfriend?"

"I believe that is something that should never be said in public for obvious reasons," Dumbledore said. "While your assessment of Magical Britain last night was rather cynical for one so young, it was far from untrue. They would view any of Voldemort's offspring as being automatically evil, and Harry would be suspicious, if not Dark, by association."

"You don't consider me evil?" Chara asked.

"I refuse to automatically assume that. I will admit to being wary of you, suspicious, but that is hardly surprising, given your father, and the mistakes I made with him. But I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, because to assume the child is exactly like the parent…well, Severus will doubtless believe that Harry is more like James Potter. It's a common mistake. Whether Dark Lords are made or raised is a subject of considerable debate in our world, just as what makes a serial killer or a brutal dictator in Muggle realms is."

Chara scoffed. "That's a better answer than I expected from you. My so-called guardians said you were rabidly anti-Dark. And make no mistake, Dumbledore, I'm not a nice person, save to my friends and loved ones. I think the term for someone like me is a misanthrope. I'm only tolerating this farce to protect Harry. After all, if Mad-Eye was right, someone did this to Harry out of malice. It's either that, or someone saw the Goblet of Fire as a means to bring Harry back from the Underground, and didn't care whether or not his true family was freed with him. Luckily, the Barrier has been shattered. I just hope that the wizards don't do anything stupid." After a moment, she sighed. "They've probably done something stupid."

"Actually, I have a few people I trust in the delegation sent there. Minister Fudge managed to choose his delegation wisely and without input from others," Dumbledore said. "I'm most worried about what will happen when the likes of Dolores Umbridge or Lucius Malfoy gets wind of this."

Suddenly, a fireplace in the corner flared into life, green flames flickering. Then, a goat-like face appeared in the flames. "Oh, I believe that worked."

Chara blinked. "Mum?"

"Greetings!" Toriel's face said. "I'm sorry about the intrusion, Headmaster, but I was just speaking to this wizard by the name of Percy Weasley who told me about the Floo Network. It seems to be derived from the Firewalk technique we developed before the war, and…well, I thought I would see if I could see where Chara, Alphys and Harry were. I thought I would try the Headmaster's Office and ask Dumbledore."

Dumbledore blinked. "Well…rather impressive, considering how secure my Floo usually is."

Toriel smiled. "We developed the original form of what you call the Floo. I believe Alphys would say that it means that we hacked it. It's arcane magic that no humans would know about, and in truth, we found other means of transport in the Underground. May I come through?"

Dumbledore, after a moment, smiled. Chara knew that he was trying to keep a handle on the situation, so acceding wouldn't be so bad. And he knew already that Chara was the adopted daughter of the Dreemurrs, the rulers of the Monsters. Getting off on the right foot would be advantageous after all.

Chara smirked quietly to herself. Of course, her mother had something of a bone to pick with Dumbledore over Harry's treatment at the Dursleys. This ought to be entertaining…

 **CHAPTER 5 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **And here's the next chapter. I originally wanted to have Chara use her abilities (basically one of her attacks from the mock Chara battle video for** ** _A Dreamer Reborn_** **) on Snape, but decided that having her do so might cause alienation too soon. So, instead, I had Chara and Harry having a test, as well as her discussing things with Dumbledore. The next chapter will have Toriel having a discussion with Dumbledore, as well as an ill-advised attempt by Malfoy to cause trouble.**

 **Review-answering time! I'm glad people enjoyed the twist about Chara's parentage. While it is something of a cliché, especially with a certain official Harry Potter story that will remain nameless, the thought of it was too appealing to pass up, and I thought it, plus her upbringing, would explain Chara's psyche. She's still a good guy, but to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes talking to Moriarty in** ** _Sherlock_** **, just because she's on the side of angels doesn't mean she is one.**

 **gorloxianfang** **: Sadly, Frisk hasn't been born yet.**

 **nightmaster00** **: The question is irrelevant. She was one of Voldemort's nameless victims.**

 **No numbered annotations.**


	7. Chapter 6: Mothers' Love

**CHAPTER 6:**

 **MOTHERS' LOVE**

 _It was at Undyne's suggestion that Harry take a few trips away from the laboratory that was now becoming his home. Undyne took him to her own home to have what she called a sleepover. In truth, it was the beginning of his training._

 _Now, most people would think that Undyne, regardless of who she was meant to train, would put someone through strenuous training automatically. However, even Undyne was aware that you can't just throw someone as nervous and timid as Harry was at the time into such a regimen. Hotheaded and boisterous though she was, she was far from stupid. She just tended to let her emotions get the better of her. Plus, she was surprisingly canny about how to ease Harry in. And while Harry would never be able to match her strenuous routine, he nonetheless would manage to make her proud._

 _Of course, that was in the future, when she was firmly rooted in his mind as his mother, along with Alphys. On that first day when Harry stayed over, Undyne started by showing off the things she could do, and Harry, like many a kid would have been, was deeply impressed. Who wouldn't be by an armoured fish woman hurling magic spears that appeared out of thin air, or could suplex a bloody boulder?_

 _Well, you'd be scared if she was after you. But she wasn't after Harry._

 _Now, Undyne managed to give Harry some exercise by stealth, as the beginning of his own training regime. They had a light jog around the immediate neighbourhood of Undyne's house, Undyne mildly impressed by his stamina (though she would later learn, to her anger, that said stamina and speed was due to the Dursleys encouraging Dudley and his gang to engage in 'Harry Hunting'). Harry met Gerson, Undyne's hero and inspiration to join the Royal Guard. He found it hard to believe that the aging turtle Monster was a famous warrior, but the war had been ages ago, and some Monsters aged in different ways to others. He liked the funny old turtle, though, and resolved to meet him again._

 _And then, there were the Blooks, Happstablook and Napstablook, a pair of ghost Monsters who couldn't be more different. Napstablook was extremely shy and self-effacing, while Happstablook was extroverted and flamboyant, and excited to meet a human. He was the founding member of the Underground's Human Fan Club, apparently._

 _The more time he spent around the Monsters, the more Harry began to realise that they were far kinder than any of the humans he had known for very long. He had only known Chara briefly, and he only knew a few adults who had shown him any kindness, a couple of teachers amongst them. Everyone else, he realised, had been poisoned by the Dursleys' lies. Yet virtually all of the Monsters he met so far were nice. Okay, Undyne was rather loud and (if he knew the words) boisterous and impulsive, but she had shown him more kindness than the Dursleys did._

 _Case in point came after they had their little jog, and came back to Undyne's house. Harry offered to cook lunch for them, and Undyne became quiet._

 _As Harry cooked spaghetti quite well (though not as…_ _ **heroically**_ _as Undyne would have liked it), Undyne asked, "Kid…Harry…how did you become so good at cooking? Being self-sufficient is great and all, but at your age…"_

 _Harry fidgeted, before he admitted, reluctantly, "The Dursleys had me do it."_

 _Now, people believed that when Undyne got angry, she got loud. In truth, that's what she did most of the time. But when she got truly, mind-bogglingly furious…she got_ _ **quiet**_ _. A bizarre kind of tranquil fury that meant someone was going to get a magic spear rammed through their chest very soon. Unfortunately, Undyne lacked a target. So, she calmed herself by smelling the spaghetti bolognaise. Wow, what a scent. Made her own efforts look dismal by comparison. Then again, there were times when she narrowly avoided setting her house ablaze._

 _"Harry…I'll be honest," she said as Harry sat down to eat his own plate (Undyne insisted he could have a serving). "Your relatives better not be like most humans. Hell…I mean, heck, I'm hoping they're more like you. Humans, I mean."_

 _"You don't like them, do you?" Harry asked._

 _"It's complicated, kid. Some humans are cool. Alphy showed me a bunch of history books and stuff. But, well, humans trapped us down here."_

 _"Alphys told me," Harry said. "But why did they do that? The Monsters I've met have been pretty much nice."_

 _Undyne chuckled. "Including me, eh? Well, there's plaques around Waterfall detailing our history. The truth is, the humans were afraid of us. Not just 'cause of us being Monsters. No, some Monsters have the ability to become more powerful with a human soul. You met Queen Toriel and Prince Asriel, right? Well, they're what are called 'Boss Monsters', and Boss Monsters are the ones that can absorb a human soul. And Monster souls are actually weaker than human souls. We can't handle the amounts of darker emotions that some humans can muster. I heard someone call that LOVE once, not love as in lovey-dovey, but LOVE, for Level Of ViolEnce. But a Monster that has a human soul in conjunction with their own becomes very powerful. That's why the humans, or at least their wizards, sealed us away. Hell, Chara and you are the first humans to come into the Underground, ever. Or at least the first to survive the landing. Guess you two got lucky." She ate her spaghetti, and made a noise of pleasure. "Hey, Harry, did those relatives of yours ever compliment your cooking? Or let you eat your own?"_

 _Harry shook his head. Undyne could see the story in his eyes without needing to be told. They treated him like a servant, and abused him. She sighed in anger, and said, "Well, thanks for the grub, Harry. You're a good kid, better than those relatives of yours deserved."_

 _Harry scoffed, the sound too cynical for one so young. "They kept calling me a freak."_

 _"Yeah, well…they'd say worse about me, Harry. But they're worse. They call us Monsters, but humans…pfft. They think of us as monstrous, but many humans are worse on the inside. The King and Queen still think we might be able to make peace with them, should the Barrier ever come down…but I dunno. But like I said, you're a good kid." She then smirked. "And you know what? I'm gonna make you_ _ **great**_ _…"_

* * *

At least Toriel didn't lose her temper with Dumbledore, Harry reflected. She was very calm, just like Undyne was when she got angry. And Toriel was angry with Dumbledore, but she was better at being diplomatic than Undyne.

After hearing the whole story, Toriel sighed. "I cannot condone your actions, not wholly. I understand your reasoning, but putting all of your trust into these Blood Wards was dangerous. And given what Chara has told us of the life of her father thanks to the Horcrux within Harry…you risked creating another Voldemort by placing him with unloving relatives, who were more than willing to murder him to be rid of him. You are fortunate that I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, Dumbledore. I know you had the best intentions, but I believe you humans claim that is what the road to hell is paved with."

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "All I can say, apart from offering my deepest and sincerest apologies, is to show my gratitude that Harry found a family who did care about him. And my gratitude to you personally, Toriel, for not only supporting Harry, but for raising Chara, and doing so in a way that she is certainly not what I would expect in the daughter of Voldemort."

Chara rolled her eyes. "What would you expect? Something that looked like the mutant incestuous offspring of a snake and the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"Chara, please, show a little more tact when dealing with Professor Dumbledore," Toriel chided mildly. "It would be too early to ask you to show respect, but being tactful is another matter."

"Tact?" Chara asked, cocking her head in a mock-quizzical manner. "Is that a new flavour of chocolate?"

"No, and if you give me any more cheek, young lady, I will ensure that you do not get any for some time as punishment."

Chara's crimson eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare." Noticing Toriel's look, she muttered, mutinously, "Fine."

Toriel nodded, before returning back to Dumbledore. "Now, Harry is bound to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament due to someone tampering with the Goblet of Fire. Am I correct?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Unfortunately, I have too many potential suspects, and not enough leads. However, I believe the culprit behind this to be ultimately Voldemort himself. I tried to lure him, or at least one of his agents, into a trap three years ago, but he managed to escape. Two years ago, one of his followers left a Horcrux in the possession of Ginny Weasley."

"The redhead girl we saw this morning?" Chara asked. "Did she get possessed?"

"Yes, and only the timely intervention of her brothers and Neville Longbottom saved her from having her lifeforce drained. She had also unleashed, under the influence of Voldemort, a Basilisk. While I suspected I knew what the creature was, I didn't know where its lair was, and it was only by chance that the students managed to enter the Chamber of Secrets, which is normally closed to all but Parselmouths. They only managed to enter by following Ginny."

"I see. So only those who speak the tongue of snakes could enter," Toriel mused. "Did Voldemort make any attempts on Hogwarts last year?"

"No, but a man called Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban. He was believed to be a traitor to Harry's parents, but in fact, he had discerned the true traitor. Neville Longbottom, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger learned of this, as did my DADA teacher at the time, Remus Lupin. Unfortunately, due to interference from Severus and the Dementors stationed around Hogwarts at the time…"

"Wait, Dementors?" Toriel asked, looking shocked. "Chara told me those vile things were stationed around your prison of Azkaban, but why would they be around Hogwarts?"

"To try and capture Black. Thankfully, Severus managed to drive them away to protect the students, but out of spite, he then claimed to have captured Sirius, and presented him to the Minister to be executed. Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom managed to rescue him, and he is currently on the run. Actually, he would be most delighted to hear from Harry. He is his godfather, after all. And I believe Remus would like to hear from Harry too. How do you feel about werewolves?"

"As long as they are a decent person when not transformed, and isolate themselves when they are, I don't care."

"Good. I will send an owl, asking if they would like to go to Mount Ebott. Black will be travelling in the form of a large black dog."

"Ah, an Animagus. Very well."

Harry frowned. "Why didn't I know Mr Lupin? Why wasn't I sent to stay with him?"

"Leaving aside the issue of the Blood Wards, Harry, the truth is, werewolves were feared even before Voldemort used them as his enforcers and terror troops. One of the most infamous was the man, though I use that term loosely, who infected Remus. The moment Remus had been exposed as both a werewolf and your guardian would be the last day he would spend a free man, if not his last day alive," Dumbledore said. "It's not at all fair, I know, but sadly, this is the way Magical Britain works, with corruption too deeply rooted to remove easily, and attitudes too ingrained to correct. I have three positions of power, and I fear that I do the best as Headmaster here, for all my power, both actual, and political."

Toriel, after a moment, nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well. How do you think they will view us? The diplomatic mission sent to us was rather politic, given humans' attitudes to us in the past, but I doubt that it will remain that way."

"And you would be correct. Contempt towards anything they consider to be an impurity of blood is a cornerstone of many Pureblood families in our world. And they consider Muggles, humans with no magical blood, to be less than animals. I am sure that Monsters would be considered even less. That being said, to my knowledge, the magic used to seal up the Monsters under Mount Ebott has been lost, and there should be no way known for them to do so without you being able to counter it."

"It better be lost," Chara muttered.

"Well, I am truly glad that you are willing to treat with us, and to look after my child and her friend, along with Dr Alphys," Toriel said. "And if they are going to be here for this time, may I look at the subjects they can attend?"

"Certainly," Dumbledore said, fishing around in his desk and handing a booklet to Toriel. "Chara and Harry's education, at least by Hogwarts' standards, is somewhat uneven, though by Muggle standards, they're more learned. I would suggest learning in Potions and Herbology as far as core subjects are concerned, along with Astronomy. Of course, electives like Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy, and Divination are wholly up to you."

Alphys, who had stood and looked at the book Toriel was holding down for her, frowned. "No science? No maths?"

"Not by Muggle standards, no, though Arithmancy does require knowledge of mathematics on a level comparable with high school standards, and later, university," Dumbledore said. "You are more than welcome to tutor him in such matters. Mathematics and English are considered subjects to be taught at home by Pureblood families. The closest thing we have to science, apart from Astronomy, is Care of Magical Creatures, which is not unlike biology, or at least zoology. I daresay there are a number of students who would be willing to bring him up to speed with Muggle schooling. I saw you talking with Hermione Granger, a veritable prodigy in Gryffindor, and there are a number of Ravenclaws who keep up with their Muggle subjects."

"We'll consider that," Toriel said. "Speaking of consideration, we felt that we needed someone to look after Harry, Dr Alphys, and Chara. We considered who that would be for some time. We couldn't spare anyone from the Royal Guard due to our ongoing negotiations with the humans, so sadly, bringing in Undyne is out of the question. She's not happy about that, though, and she intends to visit as often as she can. Sans considered coming, but the wizards might consider him to be a construct of a Dark wizard, and Papyrus, bless him, is a bit too kind and trusting. We then had something of a request. Mettaton wanted to come here."

"Mettaton?" Chara asked, astonished. "Why does the narcissistic junkheap want to come here?"

"Chara, my child, don't be rude. Mettaton wanted to come for a few reasons. One, he has enough weaponry on his person to be able to protect you, and his chassis, from what Dr Alphys told me, is nigh-indestructible, at least in his base form. Two, he is excited at being able to meet humans, and saw this as an opportunity. Three, he's looking to make this into a documentary for the others back in the Underground: it'll be some time before the Monsters are allowed to leave the Underground in earnest. Finally, he wants Dr Alphys to work on his EX and NEO transformations, and instead of forcing her to come back to him, he will come to her, along with any equipment she needs."

"This Mettaton…what is he like?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's the offspring of David Bowie and Gilderoy Lockhart turned into a robot, especially in his EX form," Chara said succinctly. "He's camp, egotistical, flamboyant, and self-centred…and I just listed his good points."

"Chara, you forgot about his friendship with Blooky," Harry pointed out. "And he's nice to us and Azzy, not to mention the Dreemurrs. And of course Mum."

"She's the one giving him the new body, of course he'd be nice."

"As long as this Mettaton doesn't cause too much disruption, I see no reason why he can't come here," Dumbledore interjected. "Though I would hope that he doesn't act too much like Mr Lockhart."

Chara snorted quietly. "Fat chance of that happening…"

 **CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **So, here you have it: the latest chapter of** ** _Underground's Champion_** **. Sorry about the expositional bogdown. Hopefully, with Mettaton at Hogwarts, things will get livelier.**

 **It took me a while to figure out who the bodyguard figure would be. I considered Undyne and Sans, as noted above, but rejected them for the reasons stated above. That, plus Sans is, defence-wise, quite weak. So I thought Mettaton would be a funnier and more interesting bodyguard for these three.**

 **Review-answering time!** **WhiteElfElder** **: Not long. Either he or Draco will end up as Chara's victim.**

 **No numbered annotations this time.**


	8. Chapter 7: Mettaton

**CHAPTER 7:**

 **METTATON**

 _It was a couple of weeks after Harry fell into the Underground. Chara and Asriel were playing in the snow in the Snowdin area. Sans acted as a chauffeur to bring Harry from Hotland to Snowdin (Alphys didn't do well with the cold, and Undyne wasn't fond of it either), and had brought his younger brother Papyrus along. It took the timid boy a little while to join in, until Asriel, on a whim, started a snowball fight. And that broke the ice. Soon, the children and the skeletons were having fun in the snow._

 _While they were making snowmen, Asriel asked, "You ever make a snowman before, Harry?"_

 _Harry shook his head. Chara then quietly said to Asriel, "That was also the first snowball fight where he wasn't the main target. Where he was allowed to fight back without having the tar beaten out of him for it."_

 _Sans, who was nearby, scowled, the lights in his eye-sockets blinking out to show his anger. He knew Chara had used Legilimency on Harry, so he knew where Chara got that information from. Not to mention he could use his own abilities to discern the state of a person's soul. "That's not right. A good snowball fight's either a team effort or a free-for-all. Okay, people get curb-stomped sometimes, but even so…a snowball fight's for having a good time."_

 _"AND I MOST CERTAINLY HAD A GOOD TIME!" Papyrus declared in his usual bombastic manner. The tall, lanky skeleton had become fast friends with Harry, who, despite his timidness, had managed to bond with the enthusiastic young skeleton Monster. Okay, he was very loud and a bit annoying, but Papyrus was a genuinely kind guy beneath his bombast and bluster. "I WAS PROUD TO HAVE YOU AS A TEAMMATE AGAINST TEAM DREEMURR WHILE MY LAZYBONES BROTHER SKIVED OFF!"_

 _"Bro, that's cold," Sans drawled. "I was…snowed under."_

 _Asriel and Harry chuckled at the bad pun. Papyrus made an incoherent noise of annoyance, and Chara rolled her eyes. Sans waddled over to Harry, watching as he made his snowman. "So, how's Alphys treatin' you?" Sans asked the timid boy gently._

 _"Pretty well," Harry said. He had gotten used to Sans' presence as he visited the laboratories frequently. "And Undyne's nice, once you get to know her. There's so many nice people here. I still can't believe the humans locked you guys away."_

 _"Believe it," Chara said bitterly. Trying to get her mind off the subject, she said, "You meet Happstablook yet?"_

 _"The ghost? The one who's the head of the human fanclub here?" Harry asked. "Yeah. He's a bit odd, but he and his cousin are nice. I think he's been in talks with Alphys about giving him a robot body, actually. He wants to get into television."_

 _"Not much of it down here," Chara said. "Then again, not much of it where I lived either."_

 _"Don't sweat it, kid," Sans said. "More to life than television. Or using the Undernet. Which reminds me, I want to go see your mother about some jokes."_

 _Chara rolled her eyes again. "You and your puns…"_

 _"Yeah, gotta ask, Chara, do you ever smile?" Sans asked._

 _What came over Chara's face could be technically called a smile…in the same way that a fresh corpse had everything that a living human being had, minus the spark of life. Harry recoiled, though sadly, he had seen worse smiles, filled with malice, on the faces of his so-called family in the Dursleys. Asriel yelped, "Waah, Chara! Don't scare us like that!"_

 _"…SANS, WHY DOES CHARA LOOK LIKE SHE WANTS TO KILL THE BATMAN?" Papyrus asked, cocking his head in confusion._

 _"…Because she doesn't have much practise smiling properly," Sans said. There was no horror in his tone or fear. Just a sad resignation, knowing Chara hadn't had much to smile about in her old life._

 _Harry didn't know it, but Sans knew what kind of person Chara was from the get-go, and didn't trust her. The feeling was mutual: Chara didn't like Sans, who had the ability to peer into the states of people's souls. And that sort of scrutiny was something she didn't enjoy one bit…_

* * *

"So, you've got a bodyguard coming here?" Hermione asked as they ate breakfast in the Great Hall the next day. "Who is he?"

"He'd probably be aghast to hear you ask such a question," Alphys said as the reptilian scientist chewed on a rasher of bacon. "Mettaton is probably the most famous Monster in the Underground, aside from the Dreemurrs. Even Chara and Harry aren't as famous as Mettaton."

"He's basically a camp robot version of David Bowie," Harry said. "Well, in his EX form, anyway."

Hermione blinked. "A robot? You've developed an artificial intelligence?"

Alphys pursed her lips, before admitting, "Actually, not really. Mettaton's body is pretty sophisticated, true, but Mettaton's body houses a ghost Monster called Happstablook."

"Oh. But still…the body has arms and legs?"

"In his EX form, yes," Alphys said.

"A bipedal robot…" Hermione shook her head. "That's still being worked on by humans. I think I'm going to have to take a look at your lab, Dr Alphys. The things you must be doing with technology and magic sound…well, amazing."

Alphys blushed at the praise she was receiving. Harry then smirked, and said, "Yeah, my mum's pretty amazing. So's my other mother."

"The fish-woman?" Ron asked, confused. "How can you have two mothers?"

"Well, they love each other," Harry said with a shrug.

Ron grimaced. Even he got the implication pretty quickly. "My mum'd better not hear anything about that. She's got a thing about 'proper relationships'. There was that scandal when Flint's mother was found in bed with another woman, and my mum went off on a rant that sounded like one of her Howlers."

"Well, your mother better not say anything to Undyne," Chara said warningly. "This is a woman who can suplex a boulder."

As Ron boggled, Harry nodded. "Really. I've seen her do it. I'm nowhere near as strong as she is: Monsters in general tend to be physically stronger than humans. But she's put me through my paces, and I'm pretty fit. And she's also one of the strongest Monsters in the Underground. So's Mettaton. And you saw Asriel earlier. His parents are the royals of the Underground, and they're also pretty much the strongest. And they're Chara's parents too."

"Stop it Harry, you're making me blush," Chara said with a sardonic roll of her eyes.

"But you always blush, Chara," Harry teased right back.

Ron, after a moment, asked, "Are you two…?"

"Are we what?" Chara asked as the redhead trailed off meaningfully.

"I think Ron is trying to ask whether you two are boyfriend and girlfriend," Hermione said. "I personally though it fairly blatant. You're a little too intimate to be adopted siblings or just friends."

"Well, yeah," Chara said with a shrug. "Don't get me wrong, we weren't friends instantly. My upbringing…well, I was pretty wary of any humans. The Monsters treated me far better than any wizard or Muggle. But Harry…he grew on me. Like a fungus. And…well, he stopped me from making a very big mistake. Let's just leave it at that."

Harry nodded, knowing that Chara didn't want to discuss her suicidal plan to empower Asriel with the ability to pass through the Barrier and collect seven souls from the humans in the nearby village. It was still very much a sore point with her. "It was Chara who first told me what I was famous for," Harry said quietly. "Nobody ever told me. And when I learned why I was famous…"

Hermione pursed her lips in thought…and sympathy. "I see. Because you survived the Killing Curse…and your birth parents didn't."

Harry nodded again. "I understand why the wizards celebrate Halloween…because Voldemort got vanquished. But…it's a reminder of what I lost."

Any further discussion on the matter was interrupted when the doors to the Great Hall burst open, and a most extraordinary figure walked through. Slender, metallic, his features androgynous, his armour pink and black, he looked like some robotic glam rocker. "HELLO, HOGWARTS!" he declared, spreading his metallic arms wide.

"Oh dear Merlin," Chara muttered, putting her face into her hands.

After a moment, Hermione said, quietly, "He DOES look like David Bowie." There was also a slight blush to her cheeks as she looked the robot up and down.

"Apologies for the intrusion, darlings," Mettaton said in his flanging voice, after a period of silence had passed. "I'm afraid I'm rather unfashionably late. I don't require any repast, though. I'll be glad for a meet and greet, but first, I must see my charges."

"Ugh," Chara groaned in disgust as Mettaton strutted over to them.

"Budge up a little, Chara, darling," Mettaton said. Chara slid along the bench at the table as much as she could, grudgingly allowing the robot to sit next to her.

"How's things back home, Mettaton?" Alphys asked.

"More than a little busy, Alphys," Mettaton said, his demeanour surprisingly serious once he had sat down. "We've got delegates from the Ministry of Magic left, right and centre. So far, they're not being too bad. And the Dreemurrs are, of course, excellent diplomats. As for the population, well, they're more than a little antsy. They want to leave the Underground, but there's also the fact that they'd be leaving their homes. That, and we don't know how the humans will react to an exodus."

"Where's the tools you wanted me to use to modify your body?" Alphys asked.

"Taken to your quarters by a House Elf," Mettaton said. "Incidentally, Undyne is worried about you. We'll have to arrange visits via Portkey. So, making friends, Harry?"

"Well, I've only known them for a little while, Mettaton, but I hope we can be," Harry said, before indicating their tablemates. "That's Ron and Hermione. That's Ginny, Fred and George, Ron's siblings. And that's Neville."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Mettaton purred.

Hermione, who had been staring at Mettaton for a time, then turned to Alphys. "Umm, if you're modifying his body, can I watch when I have time? Only, I want to see what Monster technology is like."

"Of course!" Alphys said.

"Indeed," Mettaton said. "You can be Alphys' official nosebleed mopper. Poor darling gets them a lot when working on my body."

Alphys' blush deepened, Hermione blinked in astonishment, and Chara, as was her wont to do, rolled her crimson eyes…

* * *

Harry and Chara had opted to join the Hogwarts classes for at least a few of the subjects. They had decided last night not to actually enrol, as they had enough of an education from Alphys and Toriel, but that didn't mean that they didn't wish to sit in on a couple of subjects. Dumbledore allowed this, hoping to make a good impression on Harry and Chara, whom he was dubbing unofficial ambassadors to the Monsters, along with Alphys and Mettaton.

In a makeshift workshop that they had made from a disused classroom, Alphys began to tinker with Mettaton. Dumbledore, ever-curious, watched over the process. "I have to say, this is most extraordinary," the elderly wizard said. "You've made an artificial body for a ghost Monster."

Alphys nodded as she worked on a gyroscopic system in Mettaton's abdomen as he lay down on a table. "The tricky bit isn't creating the body, though that's still advanced robotics, even by Monster standards. It's being able to interface a ghost with a body so that they can use it."

"And, of course, it was tricky learning how to walk and dance," Mettaton said. "But the effort I put in was worth it. The rest is all my personality." His face fell. "I do miss Blooky, though. Do you think the ghosts here would object to my cousin visiting?"

"I don't think they will, though there is a somewhat mischievous poltergeist who might cause trouble," Dumbledore said, before his face fell. "It's the living rather than the dead that I would be more concerned about. While the Minister has managed to make some good calls, sadly, that may not last. Fudge is a man who follows where the money leads him, and more than a few with darker inclinations whisper in his ear while dropping money into his pocket."

Deciding to change the subject, Alphys asked, "Incidentally, which subject has my son and Chara gone to for the morning?"

"Care of Magical Creatures, run by Rubeus Hagrid. He's the Keeper of the Keys and the Grounds of Hogwarts, and recently, after we exonerated him of a crime he had been accused of, I gave him a teaching position," Dumbledore said. "Hagrid, bless him, is a touch indiscreet when it comes to secrets, and he has a somewhat different notion of danger to others, but I trust him with my life."

"And that man Snape…do you trust _him_ with your life?" Alphys asked.

"Completely and utterly, Doctor Alphys," Dumbledore said. "Snape is…well, I cannot lie. While he is a most intelligent and learned man, he lets his prejudices and bitterness blind him at times. When he sees Harry, he sees a reminder of a man who bullied him. He is a thoroughly unpleasant man. But he is also utterly loyal to me. Trust me on this."

"You left Harry with the Dursleys," Alphys said rather curtly. "I find it hard to do so."

"Fair enough. Doctor Alphys, while I know I have made many mistakes in my lifetime, I also strive to correct them. And to see Harry happy and loved…after I heard from the Dursleys what they had done, I had feared the worse. When I saw you and Harry, along with your lover Undyne, Chara and Asriel…I felt such a sense of relief, for it meant I had a second chance to make up for my mistakes."

"I hope you are sincere, Dumbledore," Alphys said.

An awkward silence fell over the room, before Mettaton groaned, "Oh, damn!"

"What is it, Mettaton?" Alphys asked.

"I forgot the camera, darling. I wanted to make a documentary for the folks back home to see humans!" Mettaton pouted petulantly. "I mean, until now, we've only really seen Chara and Harry."

"Oh, well, in that case, they may be seeing a few more," Dumbledore said. "Aside from the people the Ministry has sent. I received word this morning from Remus Lupin. He and Sirius are on their way to Mount Ebott as we speak."

"That's the werewolf and the fugitive, isn't it?" Alphys asked.

"Indeed. If Harry decides to go home for a time, he can meet them. They're certainly eager to meet him again…"

 **CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **So, there you have it. Mettaton has made his debut. Next chapter, there will be Moony and Padfoot meeting the Dreemurrs and Undyne. Oh, and Sans and Papyrus. So the next chapter, rather fittingly, has the title** ** _Marauders and Monsters_** **.**

 **Review-answering time!** **Have a Little Feith** **: I'll consider doing that with Chara and her chocolate. That sounds hilarious.**

 **Reishin Amara** **: Camp behaviour is…flamboyant. A camp stereotype would be…hmmm…well, think how Zarbon is portrayed in** ** _Dragonball Z Abridged_** **.**

 **Tenzo51** **: Because Undyne has her duties. Rest assured, she'll be getting around to that later…**

 **No numbered annotations this time.**


	9. Chapter 8: Marauders and Monsters

**CHAPTER 8:**

 **MARAUDERS AND MONSTERS**

 _Chara laughed nervously as Asgore was tended to by Toriel and Alphys. It was all she could do in the aftermath of what had probably been the biggest mistake of her life. Her heart hammered in her chest as the full enormity of what she had done hit her._

 _Oh, they had laughed it off. Her father admittedly could only laugh weakly, given what the butterscotch pie had done to him. But Chara realised how close she came to becoming a patricide, even if unintentionally._

 _A small part of her blamed the recipe book: it was an old one, written in a different alphabet and with somewhat poetic language, and it was easy to mistake 'cups of butter' for 'buttercups'. But Chara had made the decision to use buttercup flowers, waving off Asriel's fears. And Asgore had nearly paid for it with his life. The King of Monsters, one of the strongest if not THE strongest Monster in the Underground, nearly killed by the toxic effect of buttercups._

 _And the worst thing of it? Beyond a mild scolding from her adoptive parents, Chara had not suffered any consequences. From them, anyway. The consequences came from within, guilt and self-reproach._

 _She wandered away from the clinic, and further into the labs, in something of a daze. If Asgore had died, what then? Even if Toriel and Asriel forgave Chara, would anyone else in the Underground do so? Chara was sure that Undyne would be at the head of a pogrom against Chara: the fish-woman looked up to Asgore like a father, her own parents having died during a cave collapse._

 _Chara found a bench and began to weep softly to herself. She was the daughter of a killer. And it seemed that killing was the only thing she had a talent at. She had nearly killed Asgore, one of the first people to show her true kindness for all of her life, and only luck and Sans transporting the king to Alphys saved his life._

 _She sat there, thinking dark thoughts alone, for a long time. Thoughts no child her age should ever think. These Monsters had shown her kindness, and this was how she repaid them. They nearly lost their king, and she nearly lost her true father, not that Dark Lord who was her sperm donor. They were Monsters, but she was an abomination, born of another abomination._

 _She didn't deserve to live._

 _But then, a thought occurred to her. She may not deserve to live, but mere suicide would not help save the Monsters from their imprisonment. But…she remembered reading about why the Monsters were imprisoned in the first place. About how Boss Monsters like the Dreemurrs could absorb the soul of a human, and become more powerful…powerful enough to even cross the Barrier._

 _Yes. That way, her life would have value, it would have meaning. And those people in the nearby village…they were worthless humans, fit only for releasing the souls needed to breach the Barrier._

 _So caught up in her dark thoughts, Chara didn't notice Harry approaching until he sat down next to her. "Are you all right, Chara?"_

 _She very nearly lied, nodding her head. But she caught herself. She merely shook her head. She couldn't speak. She wasn't sure she trusted herself to. She just sat there, with Harry nearby, his presence surprisingly soothing, but doing nothing to ease the dark thoughts running through her head…_

* * *

Undyne watched the entrance to Mount Ebott warily. The human delegation had mostly gone back for the time being, but Toriel had received word that a pair of humans would be seeking refuge in the Underground. One was apparently the godfather of Harry, and the other was an honorary uncle.

Now, Undyne had been annoyed to hear that, and that they would try to muscle in on Harry. Okay, apparently the godfather had been wrongly incarcerated, and apparently the honorary uncle was a werewolf, so she couldn't blame them too much for staying away. But still, she was Harry's mother…well, along with Alphys. She couldn't help but feel protective.

Soon enough, walking up the mountain trail, a rather haggard-looking man, aged before his time, walked up in rather careworn robes. By his side was a large black dog. Once they had approached, Undyne, who was in full armour, held up a gauntleted hand. "Halt, human," she said. "Identify yourself." She said human because, as Sirius Black was a fugitive, she was sure he didn't want the game given away to any prying ears.

"I am Remus Lupin, and this is Padfoot," Lupin said. "I was told to speak with either Captain Undyne of the Royal Guard, or the Dreemurrs." He handed over a letter. "I received this from Professor Albus Dumbledore."

Undyne took the letter carefully, and read it. She had received a similar one from Dumbledore earlier, and knew the handwriting matched. She nodded. "Well, lucky for you, I happen to be Captain Undyne," she said. "Come with me. And don't try any funny stuff, or there'll be a spear with your name on it…"

* * *

Remus Lupin followed the figure in dark armour as she strode ahead of them. THIS was Harry's adoptive mother? Her voice was a low rasp, and given the reverberation of the helmet, it was hard to tell that it was even female.

They made their way through various corridors, before she opened a door and gestured them inside. Once they did so, she entered. It was a fairly basic interrogation room, a table, a few chairs, and a mirror. "I don't get to use this that much," Undyne said as she took off her helmet and sat down, gesturing for Remus to sit down opposite her. "Most Monsters are pretty peaceful and law-abiding. But I wanna ask you a bunch of questions before I let you two punks stay here. And drop the disguise, Black."

As Sirius changed back into a human form, Remus studied the face of the woman in front of him. Her skin was scaly and blue. She didn't have a nose, or at least one to speak of, and the only eye she had (the other covered up by an eyepatch) was yellow, baleful, and with a slit pupil. Oh, and narrowed in suspicion. Instead of ears, she had fins, and a ponytail of red hair came from her head. Her mouth was filled with jagged, shark-like teeth.

"What are you, a rozzer or something?" Sirius asked in annoyance.

"Rozzer? D'you mean a cop or an Auror? I'm the Head of the Royal Guard, and that means we're the nearest thing to a police force in the Underground," Undyne said.

"So this is an interrogation?" Remus asked.

"No, this is a questioning. You really don't want me to do an interrogation. Most Monsters can't muster up the negative emotion to actually hurt someone. Our souls can't stand it. But I'm one of the few who can. Now, I know you were in jail, Sirius Black, but I wanna know what the hell happened to make you punk out on looking after Harry and end up in jail in the first place. And you, Remus Lupin, I wanna know why you didn't so much as try to contact Harry."

Sirius looked incensed, but Remus held up a placating hand. He decided to be as honest as possible with Undyne, at least so she would let them live with Harry. "I'll go first, let Padfoot calm down a little. Dumbledore told me that he was safe. He didn't tell me where Harry was, or with whom, at least not until he contacted me. Even if I had known about the Dursleys, trying to approach him, let alone adopt him, would have been problematic for a number of reasons. The first is that I'm a werewolf. While I would be frightened of looking after Harry with my affliction, it's also the political climate in Magical Britain. If it was discovered that the Boy Who Lived was in the custody of a werewolf, I may very well have been executed."

Undyne scowled. "You're kidding, right?"

"Sadly, partly due to the actions of a number of werewolves during Voldemort's last rise to power, a lot of anti-werewolf laws have been passed. I was lucky to have attended Hogwarts, even before then."

"Okay, okay. I get the idea. You're a wimp, and wizards are arseholes," Undyne said with a wave of her gauntleted hand. "Plus, Dumbledore never told you where Harry was, so I guess that excuses you anyway. What about you, Black?"

Sirius glared at Undyne, before he said, "When Harry's parents went into hiding, they used a charm called the Fidelius. It locks…"

"Yeah, yeah, it was around when the Monsters first got sealed under Mount Ebott. Basically, a location or a person's identity or anything you want kept secret is locked within the soul of a person called a Secret Keeper, right? Old Gerson told me about that."

Sirius nodded. "I was selected as Secret Keeper, but in fact, at the last moment, we swapped with…Peter Pettigrew." The name came out as a growl, not that Remus could blame him.

"Okay, so, judging by your tone, Pettigrew betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, right?"

"Right, but everyone thought I was the Secret Keeper, in order to keep attention away from Pettigrew," Sirius said. "I even went around boasting that I was the Secret Keeper. That backfired. When I saw what happened, I got angry. I found Harry and gave him to Hagrid. Not one of my best decisions, I'll admit, in retrospect. I tracked down Peter to try and capture him or kill him, but he started screaming about how I betrayed the Potters, then used a spell to cause a massive explosion. He cut off his finger, turned into a rat, and escaped. I was laughing in sheer disbelief when the Aurors caught me. And then, I was shipped off to Azkaban without trial."

"Why was that?" Undyne asked suspiciously.

"A few reasons. Barty Crouch had a bad habit of sending people off to Azkaban without a trial at the time. Plus, the Black family has a pretty bad reputation. They thought I was reverting to type. You remind me a bit of my cousin Bella, actually, only less sadistic and batshit crazy."

"That doesn't sound like a flattering comparison," Undyne muttered.

"Padfoot, don't annoy her," Remus hissed quietly.

Undyne contemplated things for a time. Eventually, she said, "Okay. I'll be honest with you two. I don't really trust you that much. Hell, I don't trust Dumbledore, especially given where he left Harry. But I'll give you a chance if you submit to being examined by our judge."

"Judge?" Remus asked.

Undyne sighed, before taking out a slender plastic device that, Remus realised, was some sort of mobile phone. She flipped it open, and called a number. "Oi, Sans! No puns, just listen. Those two wizards Dumbledore told us about, they're here. I want you to judge them, okay? I'm in the interrogation room. Yeah, I know, first time I've used it for a very long time. Right. See ya."

Suddenly, there was a brief strobe of darkness, and then, they heard a bone-chilling voice behind them. " _Humans. Don't ya know how to greet a new pal? Shake my hand._ "

Remus was on the verge of panicking and pulling out his wand, hexing whoever was behind them, before he saw Undyne rolling her eyes. Well, her eye. So it was Remus who turned, took the hand that was proffered from out of the shadows…and then frowned at what he felt. "A whoopee cushion in the hand? Really?" he asked.

"Hey, never underestimate the classics," said the squat skeleton in a hoodie, now uncloaked by shadows.

"We're experienced pranksters," Sirius said. "We expect a bit more…sophistication in our pranks."

Remus looked askance at Sirius. "That's clearly not what you were thinking when you had Snape sit down on a whoopee cushion back in our first year."

"Hey, we were just starting off," Sirius protested.

Undyne put her head in her hands. "Oh my Angel, I have just made a big mistake, haven't I?"

"Probably," Sirius said cheerfully.

"Definitely," Sans concurred.

"Ugh, Sans, just get on with your job. No puns, no pranks, just do it."

"Humph. Take the fun out of things, why don't you, Undyne? You lack a funnybone." As Undyne snarled, Sans closed his eyes briefly. And yet, despite that, Remus felt as if he was being scrutinised down to his very soul. Eventually, Sans said, "They're on the level. This one," he indicated Sirius, "does have a high level of LOVE, but he was fighting off that Voldemort guy's minions. They're safe to have in the Underground, as long as we keep this guy here confined during his little monthly problem."

"How did you…?" Remus began.

"Trade secret. So, you wanna have a meal? My treat. Grillby's does some great grub." He looked at Remus and smirked. Well, more than a smiling skeleton would normally. "You'll be… _wolfing_ it down in no time."

Somewhere nearby, someone or something played a rimshot. Undyne growled, before saying, in a tight voice, "If they're on the level, take them to Grillby's, or wherever the hell you'll take them. Just quit it with those bad jokes, Sans."

Sirius looked at Sans, and then at the snarling Undyne, before he put his arm around the skeleton's shoulders. "Tell me, Sans, do you have any fun anecdotes about pranking?"

"One or two," Sans said. "Or maybe a ton. A skele- _ton_." As Undyne growled, Sans said to Remus, "You want to come with me?"

"Not yet. I want to talk to Undyne about Harry."

"Okay, you can fill me in later," Sirius said. "I'll be making friends. Bye."

Sans and Sirius then disappeared in a strobe of darkness. Undyne sighed. "I am not looking forward to that. Sans is bad enough without someone encouraging him. I mean, the Queen encourages him with his puns, but she doesn't encourage his pranking. But now…ugh, never mind. So, what did you want to hear about?"

"Well, how he ended up in the Underground in the first place, and how you came to be his mother," Remus said. "I want to know the woman his mother is."

"Hey, I hope this isn't a clumsy attempt to hit on me. I don't swing that way," Undyne said.

"No, no, I just want to know what you're like. I mean, if we're going to help Harry…"

"Ugh, okay, you mean like that. Right, so, where do I begin?"

 **CHAPTER 8 ANNOTATIONS:**

 **So, Undyne's met the surviving loyal Marauders, and Sans has found a new partner in crimes against humour.**

 **Now, I wrote Chara's scene in the flashback to provide one of the better spins on what could have happened with the buttercups incident. True, the actions of Chara (like so many other characters in Undertale) are up to considerable interpretation, but as this Chara is a good one (albeit rather dark), I wanted to show how devastated she was at it, and how she might have had the germ of the idea that leads to her death and that of Asriel in canon.**

 **Oh, and while mellra reminded me to have Sans try the whoopee cushion gag with Sirius and Remus, I thought they'd be able to spot it in time.**

 **Review-answering time!** **chriscornish404** **: I hadn't even thought of Onionsan being in the Black Lake. I might include that.**

 **mdoombuilder** **: Well, I've got a notion that Chara and Draco will have a bad encounter sooner rather than later…**

 **No numbered annotations this time.**


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